April is C-Section Awareness Month!

Written by Jessica Pryce for her blog, Prego and Roo.

You can follow her on Instagram here!

Did you know April is CSection Awareness Month?

Arthur was born 6 days early on Feb 14th by emergency csection under general anaesthetic. Now, 9 weeks later, amidst the whirlwind of new baby life (it involves a lot of baby sick and poo FYI!) I find myself feeling sad that:

A)I didn’t get the natural pool birth I wanted

B) I wasn’t actually conscious for his birth

I can’t remember much of the first time I met him, I barely remember holding him and I had to ask Gez to tell me how I reacted, what I said, how did Gez react? Did he cry? Did I cry?

Arthur was born by c section because after 36 hours of back to back labour (ouch effing ouch) his stubborn little head was facing the wrong way and the cheeky little mite had torn my uterus with all the contracting. The epidural didn’t work (I’m one of the lucky 12% ) and so G was asked to leave the room whilst they knocked me out and delivered him at 17:06.

I had requested in my drug filled haze before going under that he was taken straight out to G. I was and am still heartbroken that I missed seeing G’s reaction as he met our son for the first time, that was the bit I daydreamed about during the previous 9 months. G advised he heard his first cry as he paced the corridor and proceeded to burst into tears as they brought him out wrapped in a blanket.

I watched One Born obsessively whilst prego, yet now I can’t bring myself to watch it, for fear of the reminder that I ‘missed’ his birth.

Here’s the clincher guys… I was of course in love with his tiny face but I didn’t realise until later that it didn’t actually ‘click’ between us for a few days. I felt so separated from the whole experience that it wasn’t until he was maybe 3-4days old that the rush of ‘can’t live without you’ finally hit. I haven’t admitted that to anyone, least of all myself for fear of being a bad mother.

So what am I getting at? What’s the conclusion? Do I feel different for the ‘unnatural birth’?

In reality, my head says no, A c-section (elective, unplanned, awake or asleep) or a natural delivery (drugs, no drugs or gas and air) you’re still a mum, you may just have some hefty old scars and a good old story to relay to them every year on their birthday (Yes kid, look what I went through to bring you here, love your mother!)

Oh, and the end result: absolute perfection! It’s only been 9 weeks but man, I’m struggling to remember what it was like before he rocked up…

And the ultimate bonus I’m taking away from it all? My floof is still fully intact- win

Jx