I'm sick of being judged for choosing to have my two sons by C-section. It's time we stopped fetishising so-called 'normal' births: CLAIRE COLEMAN
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At a children’s birthday party recently, a woman I had never met before asked me about my experience of giving birth to my first son, now two. She looked shocked when I told her I chose to have a C-section, explaining it was probably as stress-free and painless as a birth could have been.
![[Claire with her second baby. She had to repeatedly explain why she wanted a C-section to midwife after doctor after midwife]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/17/11/93229453-14201139-image-a-40_1734436786091.jpg)
In fact, out of the ten women in my antenatal class, the only ones who considered their birth a positive experience were those who had a planned – or elective – caesarean. Some others were so traumatised by what happened, they had flashbacks and physical reactions to TV programmes about birth and labour.
![[Claire with her partner and second child. She says the idea she chose to have children at a later stage in life is laughable]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/17/11/93228149-14201139-image-a-14_1734434361407.jpg)
Figures published yesterday show a record one in four babies born between April 2023 and March 2024 were delivered by elective caesarean – up more than 10 per cent in the past decade. The figure includes my younger son (figures from two years ago would have included my older one) and I have absolutely no regrets.
![[Having her first child aged 44, Claire was aware of the risks of having a vaginal birth]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/17/12/93229455-14201139-Having_her_first_child_aged_44_Claire_was_aware_of_the_risks_of_-m-42_1734436829083.jpg)
That’s despite women like me being made to feel like failures if they can’t – for whatever reason – give birth ‘naturally’. The phrase ‘too posh to push’ may no longer be in use, but that doesn’t stop some believing a woman who can’t, or simply doesn’t want to, put themselves through the pain and potential risks of a vaginal birth is somehow less of a woman, or mother.
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