OPINION: Why Do C-Sections Still Get Such A Bad Rap?

Most of us all plan on having a natural vaginal birth.

We dream of meditating our way through labour, going within ourselves, riding a freaking dolphin in our mind until all of a sudden we sneeze and a baby flies out. You might do all the hypno-birthing classes, you might eat all the right things, you might get acupuncture four times a week leading up to the main event and you might still end up having an emergency C-section.

Why do C-sections get such a bad rap? The procedure literally saves lives everyday. If there is one thing I’ve learnt whilst recording this season, it’s that childbirth has MANY variables. There are a lot of things that could go right, but there is also a hell of a lot of things that could go wrong. And as scary as that sounds, it really shouldn’t be scary at all. Because if you’re reading this, I’m assuming that you are privileged enough to live in a place that has incredible life-saving facilities.

The reality of birth is that it can be dangerous. We tend not to discuss this side of childbirth because we don’t want women around the world sewing up their private parts and throwing men off bridges. But BIRTH IS SERIOUS STUFF GUYS Very serious. There’s no way that you can make a whole human being and expect it to just slip out while you’re sleeping. No way. That sh*t is hard. Unless your vagina has the elasticity of 200-year-old hair tie, you are probably going to have a rough time.

But this is what makes birth as spectacular and as beautiful as it is. This is what makes women so unbelievably powerful! You may think you got jibbed because your baby had to come out of the rooftop, BUT YOU BLOODY DIDN’T. You didn’t get jibbed in the slightest. You made it. You survived it! And you are proof that you can over come anything. To be honest, it’s easy (hahahaha like hell it is) to birth a person vaginally. Obviously when I say easy I mean IT FEELS LIKE SOMEONE IS RIPPING YOU IN HALF. But it’s mentally easier, because you don’t have the cloud of shame, unworthiness and guilt hanging over you that comes from societies view of C-sections.

It makes me cranky to be honest. As if anybody should even HAVE an opinion about how a child should be safely brought into the world. BUT they do. We’re made to think that a C-section birth is unnatural. Our bodies should be able to part like the red sea and present our child to us just as intended. We should be squatting in a forest and crumbing the child in the dirt of the earth! But bringing a child into the world is the most natural and beautiful thing in the world, regardless of how it happens.

Sheridan is a renowned Nutritionist and GAPS Practitioner. If you’re up to date with all of the Please, Ask Mikki episodes you would know that she has in fact been on my show before! And let’s be honest, she will probably be on again (and again, and again). She’s not only a wealth of knowledge and information but she is a bloody nutcase. Sheridan is absolutely hilarious, and when we’re together we spend the entire time being super weird.

Sheridan never expected to have the birth story she did. She did everything right! Everything! But it is the story that so many women share, the story of an emergency C-section. We spent this episode crying, laughing and crying of laughter.

Get it in your bloody ears right now! RIGHT NOW. And make sure to subscribe, rate and review the podcast because you’re a legend.

You can find Sheridan at www.sheridanjoy.com or follow her on Instagram at @sheridanjoyaustin.

- Mikki xx