It’s exactly 14 days since I’ve been taken to the operation theatre for emergency c-section with the birth of my son. I can’t believe I am sitting here right now in the comfort of my home about to write what happened two weeks ago – because honestly, something inside me felt I was never going to make it out there alive. I am a worrier – that is a given but that day, all my spirits have been drained and my bucket of hope simply dried up.

I came out of that ordeal alive and well and wanting to shout out a caesarian section should not be an option UNLESS it’s medically required (as in my case where life of the baby inside me was at risk during the last stage of labor).

To say that it was painful, tough and left me so bitter is an understatement. But more and more women chose to give birth the “easier, more convenient way”. And during labor, I have heard people shout, “Just cut me up and be done with this, doctor!”

As someone who has experienced both types of birth: normal and c-section, I highly, strongly discourage anyone of the ‘cut me up’ route. Sure it sounds the easy way but is it really? Did anyone ever talk about what happens afterwards?

Sure you get your baby out in less than 30 minutes but an hour, a day, a week or even 30 years after that, your life is never the same. No one really talked about:

• The spinal block anesthesia that could go wrong and might make you disabled forever
• The pain of that spinal block anesthesia needle that’s so huge
• The fact that you are bedridden for a few days because of the pain when anesthesia goes off (sure there are pain killers but there’s a limit to how much you can take)
• The muscle pain from the ‘maneuver’ the surgeons did to take out all those needed to be taken out (baby, placenta, amniotic sac and all those bloody things)
• That you are attached to a catheter and urine bag for more than 24 hours – they know you are incapacitated enough to go to the bathroom yourself
• It’s such a pain to even find a position to sleep that you spend more time arriving to that position than sleeping itself
• You CANNOT turn to your side for at least a week
• You cannot get up, sit down in bed without crying in pain
• You will feel golf balls rolling in your tummy whenever you move
• You would need that daily injection to prevent embolism – that injection that makes you pour out all your misery out loud! The needle itself is tiny but when the medicine is injected inside you, God, IT HURTS. A lot.
• Since women who’ve had c-section are more prone to blood clots more than women who have delivered vaginally, it is imperative that you walk 24 hours after the surgery, whether you are feeling like shit or not. (If a clot breaks off and travels to the lungs, it can cause death)

As if the physical pain wasn’t enough, the psychological, emotional roller coaster set in for me hard. I felt incapacitated – that a new mom who should be taking care of her newborn needs more taking care of herself. I could not even reach for my baby when he cried, someone has to hand him over to me, position him for breastfeeding, soothe him and take him away afterwards.

I could go on and on discouraging anyone to go through this birth route (unless again, necessary). It is a major surgery that should not be taken lightly. If you can delivery normally, by all means do. Labor pain? There options to do away with the pain. Simply put:

Natural vaginal delivery : pain first (only hours of it, none if with anesthesia), normal life almost immediately after

C-section: fast delivery, pain for days and in some cases, complications and trauma

Childbirth is always a personal choice but I am all for encouraging natural delivery because our bodies are made for that, we are made to endure that. If the phrase “recovery is ten times faster”doesn’t encourage you to go natural, I don’t know what will.