🌟C-section Awareness Month🌟 When I first found out I was pregnant and began to think about a birth plan, I wanted to avoid a C-section at all costs. But that’s the thing about birth, and life really, you can’t plan it all out. I told myself that I had to be flexible from the beginning, but I didn’t think I’d actually have to listen to my own advice in the end. After being told baby was head down for 10-weeks, I was blindsided when I found out she was breech at 37-weeks. A C-section? No, not me. It was hard to accept at first. I felt like my body failed me as a mother. What would have happened to me if I gave birth 100 years ago? Would I have survived? Was I meant to even me a mom? These were the crazy thoughts that flooded into my head. I felt ashamed that I would never have that idyllic birth story I so desired. No waking up to contractions and being able to call my husband and giddily say, “today’s the day”. I now envisioned that my birth would be cold and sterile and that I wouldn’t feel the same joy and satisfaction that natural birth moms feel when they meet their babies for the first time after hours or days of labor. But I was so wrong. My birth was perfect. Yep, that’s right, I loved my C-section birth. I loved having it all planned out and being able to walk into the hospital calm and collected - and showered with some make up on for those first pictures! We were allowed to play music during my surgery and it was calm, beautiful and perfect. I still felt magic in the moment I saw her for the first time. The recovery had its ups and downs like any birth does, but it was by no means “the easy way out”. The physical demands of taking care of a newborn while recovering from a major abdominal surgery are no joke. I realize my experience with a planned C-section is so different than many moms who go through hours and hours of labor plus a c section recovery. If your birth ended in a C-section. Your birth story is still worthy. You’re still a mom - and an incredibly strong one at that. And there can still be joy and magic and joy in your c-section birth. Link in bio for my full birth story!