[MandieD]

Would have been a bit difficult to tell if my small hiatal hernia that occasionally causes scary heartburn had become an increasingly large hiatal hernia that allowed part of my stomach to slip through, requiring a much worse emergency surgery than my soothingly well-planned c-section, while in the middle of giving birth…

Not everyone giving birth is a fit 25 year old with absolutely no other health issues and a desire to have several more kids.

Tsk tsk all you like about women “waiting too long” - the majority of first-time mothers over 40 have c-sections. Would my child and I have survived a natural birth? Most likely. Would I definitely not have further damaged my diaphragm, debilitating me far more than the planned c-section did (hardly at all) at a point when we could least tolerate it? My gyno, my gastroenterologist, and I decided the c-section was a much better bet for both me and my child.

[public_defender]

That's a great medical outcome and I'm glad you were able to have it. I don't mean to detract from that at all. My experience is that, though many mothers have stories like yours, many others have an experience where the doctor forecloses natural birth from an early stage and forces a path of increasing medical intervention. I'll bet that there are quite a few fit 25 year olds with no health conditions on the scheduled c-section plan because of medical advice that didn't put mom or baby first.

The example that sticks in my mind is from one of the Ina May Gaskin books where the doctor tells a woman that she has a "big baby, but only an adequate pelvis." I can't imagine the amount of damage this kind of doctoring is still doing to people, but it's surely significant.