Too Posh To Push

My husband said this to me last night. I have had two c sections and will be having another in May 2008.

This is the same man that stood by and watched me deal with coupling contractions so serious that I was unable to catch my breath during our first child birth experience. I could barely eeck out the words 'epidural' before the next contraction hit my body like a prize fighter. I was crying and had never experienced so much pain in my life. After 16 hours of labour, our son (whose head refused to engage in the birth canal) was born via c section. He was a 7 pound baby and my doctor determined that I had a tilted pelvis and this was what caused the lack of movement despite the 2 hours of pushing and a scary amount of petocin.

Due to the reason for requiring a c section for number 1, I did some research and determined that there was far too much risk to attempt a v-back with my second pregnancy (only 19 months apart). This was confirmed for me when my water broke at 33 weeks and we knew that we would having a baby who would require immediate medical care and special care nursery services. I opted to go ahead with my 'planned' c -section. This c section was very painful (due to babe prematurity it meant that the abdominal wall did not thin and there was more muscle & tissue involved in the operation. I also contracted an infection which was gross.

So in May when I will be having our third and last baby, I will be having a third c section. There isn't much choice for the 3rd time around as the risks for placenta abruption is significant and this is not a risk I choose to place my baby in. I have researched the risks to me and to my baby and I have determined that I am too smart to push.

I have not made my decisions without significant refection. I know how this story can and will end. I know that there will be some women who will always think that they are superior because they gave birth through their vaginas. I don't hold it against them - but until you have walked a mile in my shoes you can keep your mother earth crap to yourself. But I will save my rant for those people for another day.

Back to the real reason why I am blogging about this today...

To give some context to my husband's comment - this is the man that is too scared to have a blood test done to confirm that he has gout.

I can only hope that he gets kidney stones as we age and I am afforded the opportunity to lean over and say - "what honey? Too posh to push?"