In honour of Cesarean Section Awareness Month, we spoke to two community members about their very different experiences giving birth-
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“I had never broken a bone, never had to have surgery, so I was petrified of the unknown, I tried and tried, I laboured for hours, I mean like 16 hours. The doctor was like, ‘You're like half a centimetre dilated. There's a 99% chance you're not going to have this baby vaginally.’ At that point I was like ‘all right, just fucking cut me.’” Sheena
“My whole pregnancy was rough: morning sickness, nausea, spotting, the whole thing. So when it came to discussing my birth plan with my midwife they mentioned a c-section, call me naive but I didn’t know that I could opt-in to have one. The stress and anxiety of birth had always been playing on my mind, so I sat with it for a week or so and researched, I talked to friends about their experiences and ultimately knew the decision had to be my own. And honestly, I was more comfortable with having a C-section. So I booked my appointment to give birth at 39 weeks at 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon. Ready and prepared.” - Jess
📸: @melissajeanbabies