Am I Too Posh To Push?

Absolutely not!

Thankfully, you only tend to hear this phrase in jest nowadays but there are still some who believe that those who have their babies via caesarean are ‘too posh to push’.

Once you’ve had a caesarean yourself, you’ll want to punch everyone who says that phrase in the face. Caesareans are by no means the easy way out!

Do you know how many layers the surgeons have to cut through to get the baby out? Seven! SEVEN. That’s seven large internal wounds to recover from! I’d rather push an elephant out.

I would have loved a natural birth. The recovery is so much quicker and most importantly for me, you can leave hospital a lot sooner than you can after a caesarean.

Sadly, I had to have an emergency caesarean with Edison due to complications after contracting sepsis and I ended up having to spend three nights in hospital which honestly were some of the worst nights I’ve had.

c-section

Stock image

I was one of the lucky ones though, in the respect that I recovered quicker than expected from my surgery but that’s not to say I wasn’t in a fair bit of pain. I had to take paracetamol and ibuprofen religiously every four hours for around three weeks after to keep my pain at bay.

As well as the pain killers, I also had to have daily injections for ten days into my legs to prevent blood clots that could arise following surgery. They were horrendous, I was black and blue for weeks and they destroyed my thigh muscles. It took months to fully regain any sort of strength in my legs! Though it was probably even tougher for my husband Adam as he was the one having to inject me every day!

I also had to have antibiotics and iron tablets for awhile afterwards too. Which, for a person who struggles to take even the tiniest of tablets, was super super hardcore!

Despite all of this, I’ve already made the decision to have elective caesareans with any subsequent babies. Not because, I’m too posh to push, but because of the complete lack of control I had with my first birth.

Having an elective caesarean gives me a specific date and time and procedures to follow. It gives me the control I so needed before and I really truly feel that I won’t suffer as much as I did mentally if I’m completely prepared, calm and have a full plan of action!

I’m not looking forward to having to stay in hospital again or being cut seven times but at least the next time, I’ll know a lot more about what follows after surgery. Fingers crossed anyway!

On a final note, anyone who really thinks I was too posh to push, look at this photo below. This was me raring to go with the pushing, sick as a dog, temperature sky high, shaking like a leaf about to be rushed into theatre for major, yes MAJOR surgery. See how sad and defeated I look!

If I could have waved my magic wand, gone back in time and pushed until I exploded I would. I wanted to push but it was purely and simply not safe to do so.

Regardless of whether you give birth naturally, via elective caesarian or emergency caesarian you are a soldier.

Originally published as guest content on 22.07.2019