Lessons from my Cesarean Birth , from the Perspective of a Doula , Partner and Mother

When I gave birth, to my now 11 year old daughter, I had already been a doula for over 10 years and I was truly excited to finally have this powerful experience for myself. In my prenatal planning I had decided to not have a birth plan at all. After all the births I had been to, I knew that I would rather roll with the punches and gracefully accept the events as they would unfold in front of me; with one caveat: I did not want a c-section.

I told my midwife that as long as I don’t end up with a c-section I would be happy. I wanted to experience the full gamut of birthing, every contraction, every emotion, every high, and every low and then to have it end with me pushing my child into the world and into my awaiting arms. I wanted to feel all the power of the many women that I had supported in birth.

Almost 2 weeks after my estimated due date, I began having contractions, but they would suddenly stop and then start up again. This cycle, also known as prodromal labour, went on for days. I won’t go into all the nitty gritty of the details, but I will say I certainly did have the full experience of birthing, just not in the way I had envisioned.

It was decided after a very long time of being in labour, I would need a cesarean