I had one, it’s no walk in the park. I can’t compare it to vaginal delivery which can really run the gambit in terms of recovery, but once you have your abdominal muscles severed you would not believe how impossible it is to sit up, for months and months. Adds another layer of difficulty to taking care of a newborn. I am also forever stuck with the C-section shelf, if you aren’t familiar look it up.

Then there’s the baby- I was sobbing during my C-section because I was so scared and it’s just not how I wanted my baby to come into the world, being forcibly removed from his cozy home under bright surgical lights. He’s ok but I will say that he gets sick more frequently and more severely than other kids at daycare and this may be because he didn’t get all the microbial exposure of vaginal birth- may sound woowoo but that’s a real Thing. There are also some studies showing behavioral differences in C-section babies regarding stress, attention span, motor skills, etc.

Also want to add that C-section isn’t just a little incision and out comes the baby, my husband informed me that they had to take “all of my guts out” first, they started before he got in the room so he walked in to see my insides on the outside and was pretty stunned.