I was branded ‘too posh to push’ – but my caesarean section was hell
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A growing number of expectant mothers are opting for C-sections rather than a natural birth, but judgement about the procedure remains, writes Charlotte Cripps. I’m not ready!” I blurted out as I was being wheeled into my caesarean section, at 3.30 pm to be exact. I’d had it in the diary for months – it was well planned. But I felt terrified. I wanted to jump off the hospital trolley and make a sharp U-turn out of the building. The thought of having a new baby in my arms within 10 to 15 minutes threw me. It just felt too quick. The nurse rolled her eyes and looked at me in horror. “It’s a bit late now for all that, isn’t it?” she laughed. “You’ve had nine months to prepare. Surely having a baby can’t be a shock!”.
![[I have a scar forever and I lived in fear of it opening up when I first got home, or of it getting infected]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/11/newFile-1.jpg)
Little did I know the whole experience was going to be hellish as we headed through the swing doors and into an operating theatre, where I was greeted by a team of doctors in green hospital scrubs. What did I have to complain about anyway? As the nurse pointed out, my surgery was running on time, so I didn’t have to hang around wailing in pain like other mums in the labour ward. I didn’t even have to push.
But I felt like I was being branded one of those “too posh to push” mums – even though a growing number of women are now opting for caesarean sections, according to new NHS data. One in four babies born in NHS hospitals in England was delivered by caesarean section last year. This is an increase from 23 per cent in 2022 and 13 per cent a decade ago. More than half of them were elective, a planned surgery that is usually carried out around the 39th week of pregnancy, as mine was.
