Life
Birth is so emotionally charged and the buildup is so incredible that many people feel (rather passionately) that there's a "right way" and a "wrong way" to deliver your child. Whether or not you listen to those people is, of course, entirely up to you. However, I think it's also pretty important to stop and think about what your baby wants you to know about your c-section. After all, they're the reason you went through the entire process in the first place, right?
Because a c-section could be the result of a number of things (a complication, failure to progress, numerous medical interventions, an emergency, or a scheduled and planned appointment) the feelings women who've had a c-section can (and do) vary. My 4 year old was born via c-section. I had my heart set on an unmedicated vaginal birth, but as the day loomed closer and the baby got bigger and bigger and bigger, I started to get scared. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to deliver him vaginally because of his size (which I now realize is silly, because women deliver big babies all the time), I was afraid of the pain, I was afraid of delivering on the side of the road because we lived so far from the hospital. All those fears lead up to me scheduling an induction.
I knew the cascade of interventions that were likely to follow. Induction involves an IV that usually leads to an epidural that runs a higher risk of your labor and delivery ending in surgery. Honestly though, I didn't care. I wanted to be finished with that pregnancy. I was so uncomfortable and so afraid (this was not my first pregnancy and I had experienced significant birth trauma previously) that I was ready to go. It was a self-fulfilling prophesy and, in the end, I ended up having a surgical birth.
When we finally got home from the hospital, I had so much guilt and felt so much regret about the fact that I didn't have a magical birth experience I initially wanted. In fact, my postpartum, post-cesarean feelings clouded the first few weeks I was at home with my baby. I wish that, during those weeks, I would have focused on what my baby probably would have wanted me to know about my c-section. Unlike the passionate conversations about the "right" and "wrong" way to birth a baby, I have a feeling my baby would've said the following things: