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Emotional Recovery from a C-Section Emotional Recovery From A Cesarean by KMom
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Women who experience a cesarean respond in different ways. For some women, the experience is no big deal, and they quickly move on with their lives. Some women even experience a cesarean as a relief, as freedom from a long difficult labor, a 'rescue' from a life-threatening situation, or an emotional 'escape-hatch' when the idea of normal labor pain and/or vaginal birth is extremely distressing for some reason.
Other women find a cesarean difficult to deal with emotionally. They are happy to have their children with them, but just can't see the method of their birth as 'no big deal'. For some, the lost dream of the way they had wanted to birth takes real grieving, and for others, the pain of the physical recovery (from what is after all MAJOR surgery) is difficult emotionally too. Still other women experience their birth and cesarean as a deeply traumatic event, even akin to rape.
A woman's response to a cesarean depends on a great number of factors, including how she was treated by medical staff, the respect and dignity she was accorded, factors involved in the actual surgery, how labor went, the response of her loved ones, the fantasy birth she had dreamed of beforehand, the fears and emotions she brought to labor and birth, prior experiences with the medical establishment, and her own emotional background and personal history. Because of all of these variables, it is only logical that different women would experience and interpret a similar event----surgical birth----differently. This is completely normal.
This particular FAQ is about the emotional recovery after a c-section. It discusses what women may experience emotionally, the wide range of responses that can happen, the validity of these responses, and ideas that other women have used to help themselves heal and grow after a cesarean. Because many women find that their future choices about birth and parenthood can be affected by their cesareans, this FAQ also briefly addresses the emotional aspects of choosing more children and birth choices in future pregnancies.
Since women who 'love' their cesareans or have no problems recovering emotionally from them tend not to need a great deal of validation of that experience in our society, this FAQ does emphasize those women who found their cesarean emotionally disappointing or traumatic. However, this is not meant as a judgment of those who were not distressed by their cesarean. It is simply a validation to those who found the experience difficult and distressing, and a way to share steps that other women have found to be emotionally healing afterwards.
It is important that women who read this FAQ not judge women whose experience of cesarean was different from theirs. No response is 'right' or 'wrong', and no one's experience is 'more valid' than anyone else's. Emotions are just that-----simply EMOTIONS. They don't need to be justified, they just are. This is not the place for judgment of other people's choices or responses. Instead, this is the place to try and understand where someone else is coming from and why they feel that way, to empathize with those feelings, and to find validation for your own feelings, whether they are the same or different from others' feelings here.
Continue reading and find support about emotional recovery from a c-section at The Plus-Size Pregnancy website
For more information regarding Cesarean Support, find it at Ican-online
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