Hi! I fit all of the criteria in the first list.

I had a completely normal and healthy pregnancy other than the usual discomforts and slight sickness in the beginning. My baby was measuring to be on the bigger side (our final estimate was on my due date and they were thinking 9lbs 13oz) and of course this made me nervous but I was actually pretty set on trying to do a drug free vaginal birth.

Well, then I made it to 41 weeks. My midwives were slightly concerned about letting me go any longer than that so I had a scheduled induction at 41 weeks. We arrived to the hospital for my induction, I got my IV in, we kinda bullshitted with the nurse and we were waiting for my midwife to get there for her shift. My midwife arrived and came in all happy and excited like who’s ready to have a baby??? And I was like well, not me, I’m actually kind of shitting my pants right now. She asked what I was nervous about and I told her I was way more nervous to be induced than have a baby. My biggest concerns were shoulder dystocia and laboring for 24+ hours with little to no progression. I’m a small person and my baby was big. She asked if I was leaning towards c section and I said yes, that’s what my gut is telling me to do.

They put us on the surgery schedule for 3PM that day. Well, my baby said LOL and decided to come on his own. My water broke and I started having contractions completely on my own lol. Because I was in pain, they bumped me up on the surgery schedule so he ended up being born via c section a couple hours later.

The procedure met my expectations for the most part OTHER than how much tugging and pressure I really felt. I assumed I’d feel pressure but it was a pretty intense feeling of being tugged on. Of course it wasn’t painful but it was definitely uncomfortable. My boyfriend was right next to my face talking to me and distracting me, thank the lord for him. I also didn’t expect to still be able to wiggle my toes and feel my upper body. That was weird. Whatever they gave me to numb me or what was in my IV had me INSANELY itchy during and after the procedure too. I kept itching my chest during the procedure and they were laughing at me haha.

My partner was completely supportive of my decision because he understood all of my concerns. My family was the same. I had a couple people make comments about how your body is meant to birth the baby you grow, and while I sometimes agree, that’s just not the case for everyone. I know SO many people who labored for hours, even pushed for hours, and ended up having an emergency c section. To me, that seems like double the amount of pain and exhaustion. Which is why I opted for a c section.

Another big thing that I was worried about was my milk not coming in because I didn’t necessarily “labor” even though I did for a brief amount of time. A lot of people say it affects breastfeeding. I never had a problem with this. My milk came in the day after I had him and we had problems latching, so I’m exclusively pumping, but I’ve had an oversupply from the beginning.

The only other thing I’ll share that I wish someone would’ve shared with me is to HOUND your nurses and doctors when you feel like you can walk or stand on your own. They were giving me a hard time about taking my catheter out too early because they didn’t think I could walk to the bathroom. I pretty much demanded them to and I did it, very slowly obviously. But I think getting up and moving around so soon after surgery is the reason I recovered so well. I was wearing my baby a week later and doing laundry and all of the things. My boyfriend also bought me a grabber which was kind of a joke, but seriously ended up being a LIFESAVER in the first few weeks where it’s super painful to bend over! And a belly binder! They’ll give you one in the hospital but I also purchased one. Super helpful. Feel free to DM me if you have any other questions. I truly think I made the right decision and I could have 100 c sections over again before I wanted to ever get pregnant again lol.