Last week, a study made headlines saying that babies born via C-section were more at risk of chronic illness than those who weren’t. The story was picked up and ran everywhere, including on Mamamia.
For mothers who delivered their babies by C-section, it was pretty much the least helpful study ever. You cannot undo how you gave birth to your child, and C-sec mums already have to live with a barrage of deeply unhelpful assumptions about their babies and their births.
As Bec Sparrow previously wrote for Mamamia:
It was a headline too good to ignore. A lure, I couldn’t go past.
“The major caesarean problem nobody talks about!’ whispered the article on my Facebook feed.
What? What problem? There’s a major problem nobody talks about?
I had to click.
I had to click which is err, RIDICULOUS. I say ridiculous because – are you ready for this? – I’ve had four.
Yep. Four. Four caesareans. Four sunroofs. Four times I’ve had a baby airlifted out. When I’m not writing or trying to scrape dried weetbix off the wall, or Googling “Is Roger Corser married?”, I like to spend my time in an unflattering hospital gown having major stomach surgery. That’s how I roll.
So I clicked to see what major problem I’d unwittingly endured four times. What I found – yet again – was an article on caesarean sections that was filled with misinformation and designed to scare the beejebus out of any pregnant woman.
Have a caesarean and you won’t be able to drive for six weeks, it said.