A woman from Springfield, Massouri in the United States has shared an impassioned Facebook status about the absurdity of labeling a c-section as the “easy way out”.
Raye Lee wrote that her emergency caesarean was “the most painful thing I have experienced in my life.”
She began; “LONG DRAMATIC POST WARNING: ‘Oh. A c-section? So you didn’t actually give birth. It must have been nice to take the easy way out like that,'” followed by the sarcastic response, “Ah, yes. My emergency c-section was absolutely a matter of convenience.”
Lee goes on to retell her experience of having an emergency c-section after her baby “went into distress” and his heart stopped beating, following a 38 hour labour.
She graphically describes having her baby removed from a five inch incision in her abdomen, which was “cut and shred and pulled” tearing “layers of fat, muscle, and organs…”
Lee recalls the weeks of recovery and the excruciating pain of trying to use her abdominal muscles after her body had been “cut apart and stitched back together”.
She concludes “I am the strongest woman, that I know. Not only for myself, but for my beautiful son… and I would honestly go through this every single day just to make sure I am able to see his smiling face.”
Published three days ago, the post has since attracted more than 8.5K likes and more than 9.5K shares.
The comments offer overwhelming support, with many writing that Lee actually “took the hard way out”. Many women have shared their story in response, agreeing that the recovery is horrific.
In Australia, 32 per cent of all births are through a caesarean section. This is much higher than other parts of the world, like New Zealand which is 20 per cent, and the UK at 22 per cent.
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Top Comments
I think everyone basically has to have the understanding that there aren't terribly many births that are easy. Whether your baby is coming out of your vagina or out of your lower abdomen, it's probably not going to be a walk in the park.
Well they don't call it "labour" for nothing!
Totally agree. I think the original meme about c-section being easy is just some moron being a troll. I don't know anyone who thinks like that.
And if someone is lucky enough to have an easy birth - be thankful not smug!
As someone who really, dearly wanted a natural birth but could not thanks to similar circumstances described in this article, I appreciate the acknowledgement that c-sections are not at all easy. In saying that however, I don't think it was particularly helpful to add the Australia vs. NZ vs. UK statistics as this kinda sorta reinforces the stereotype that women who have c-sections have done so out of choice. I realise this is likely explained by Australia's health/birth system, but in my experience, the uninformed often attribute such statistics to mothers themselves.