Don't be blinded by natural birth

Hi everyone,

First post, I don't know if this is were I should share this but I decided to share as a FTM to remind us that a birth goal is for healthy mom and baby.

Please note that I'm living in a developing country, so vaginal birth at hospitals are the norm here in cities and our hospital infrastructure aren't as developped as European countries'.

So when my husband and I found out I was pregnant in August 2022, we were ecstatic. And as I was following so many homebirth / natural birth Instagram account, I was set on having similar experience and to have as little medical intervention as possible.

I wanted to have a midwife as a primary care instead of a obgyn, but due to a miscarriage scare at 12w, I decided, to switch gears and had all my check ups done by an obgyn.

Aside from that scare, I had a peaceful pregnancy and during all of it I dreamed to have the same birth experience as the women I saw on Instagram, no epidurals, no medical intervention, me and my body getting my baby into the world and so on, I even took an online class on natural birth! So when my obgyn told me at 32w that my baby was in the ideal position for vaginal birth, I was soo relieved, but he then added that I would need to do a scan because my pelvis seemed a little too small for my baby's weight.

That scan shattered all my carefully laid plans as it was seen that part of my pelvis were indeed too small for baby. My obgyn gave me a choice, he told me a c section was the safest choice but a vaginal birth was still possible and it could be great but, there was a high chance that they would need to use forceps to help baby come out or to have an emergency c section if labour didn't progress correctly.

I was so sad and I was still thinking of going through with the natural birth plan convinced by all my readings and all the accounts I followed that my body was made for this and I could do it anyway. And that's when my husband told me that I had to think of what was best for baby and me and not what I wanted. And I realized that a well planned c-section was better for both of us than a possible traumatic birth. I felt like a failure for not trusting my body but I chose the C-section.

And some might say it was fearmongering but the planned C-section was the best decision I ever made. I went to the hospital the night before the procedure, my baby girl came out screaming and healthy, I was out of the hospital in 3 days and 2 weeks later I was 100% back to myself and able to take care of my baby. My doctors and midwives were all amazing, I was able to start breastfeeding at the hospital. In the end, I didn't live the end of my pregnancy waiting on labour and stressed about the possible outcome. I was at peace through the process and I was able to enjoy my baby's birth and despite the c-section's pain postpartum wasn't as hard as I thought it would be after an operation.

So I'll end it with just saying that birth plans are great and all, but medical interventions aren't the enemies the goal is for mommy and baby to be safe so don't feel bad if changes happens.

You can ask me any questions if you have any 😅

Sorry, it was long and not well written, English isn't my first language 😅

Edit: already posted this on another r/ but I wanted to share here as well