
I feel like nobody wants to hear about how my third baby basically fell out of my vagina.
We seem to gravitate towards the bad news – the war stories and the battle scars of birth. I feel awkward talking about my one hour labour, it doesn’t seem socially acceptable to recount this at mothers group.
Sharing birth trauma stories is valid and important, but I think it’s crucial that we are exposed to a balance of positive and negative.
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Here’s the thing, my firstborn was a textbook birth trauma. Emergency C-section, separated from baby for 24 hours post-op, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnosed 18 months later.
My second was an induced vaginal birth requiring an epidural, forceps and an episiotomy after a 10-hour labour. I spent weeks in recovery, my stitches came out and part of my vagina was pretty well flapping in the wind while I munched on panadol for two weeks straight.