PSA: A birth via c-section still counts as giving birth.
Sure, most of us already know this, but apparently, some still think that giving birth through surgery isn't "real birth." In a post to the Sanctimommy Facebook page, one woman revealed that a photographer she was hoping to hire to document her baby's delivery appears to have dumped her after finding out that she was going to have a c-section.
"A surgery isn't birth, my dear," the photographer told the mom-to-be in a text message. "You aren’t giving birth. You are having surgery to remove your baby from your abdomen. That is not birth no matter how you swing it and I for one don’t want to be there to take pictures of it."
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If that wasn't insulting and condescending enough, the kicker comes when the photographer tells this woman that she'll be available if the mom-to-be decides to give "an actual birth" a shot.
"If you decide to give motherhood a go from the get and have an actual birth let me know and we can schedule your session," she wrote. "This motherhood job is hard, if I were you I would think twice about starting such a job by cutting corners so early in the game."
Let's unpack this for a moment.
First of all, the exchange we see begins with the mom-to-be texting, "I didn't 'opt' for anything," indicating that the messages from the photographer that came before this screenshot implied that whoever this is thinks that a c-section is something you "opt" for, or choose.
While that may be true in some cases, there are also many medical reasons for c-sections, or situations in which someone has to have a c-section to reduce life-threatening complications during birth.
Furthermore, having a surgical birth doesn't mean that someone is "cutting corners." For one thing, c-sections involve their own hardships and complications — after all, having someone make an incision and move your organs around in your body is hardly the easy way out.
And even if it were the easy way out, can we really blame mothers for wanting to make things a little easier on themselves when going through labor can already be so incredibly difficult? Either way, there's no reason anyone should feel guilty for having a c-section instead of a natural birth. Given that the CDC estimates that 32% of all births in the U.S. per year are surgical births, it's time we stop shaming women for not giving birth the way we think is best for them.