pregnancy

One mum's honest message: There's nothing "easy" about a caesarean.

A woman from Springfield, Massouri in the United States has shared an impassioned Facebook status about the absurdity of labeling a c-section as the “easy way out”.

Raye Lee wrote that her emergency caesarean was “the most painful thing I have experienced in my life.”

She began; “LONG DRAMATIC POST WARNING: ‘Oh. A c-section? So you didn’t actually give birth. It must have been nice to take the easy way out like that,'” followed by the sarcastic response, “Ah, yes. My emergency c-section was absolutely a matter of convenience.”

 Lee goes on to retell her experience of having an emergency c-section after her baby “went into distress” and his heart stopped beating, following a 38 hour labour.

She graphically describes having her baby removed from a five inch incision in her abdomen, which was “cut and shred and pulled” tearing “layers of fat, muscle, and organs…”

Lee recalls the weeks of recovery and the excruciating pain of trying to use her abdominal muscles after her body had been “cut apart and stitched back together”.

She concludes “I am the strongest woman, that I know. Not only for myself, but for my beautiful son… and I would honestly go through this every single day just to make sure I am able to see his smiling face.”

 The images of Lee’s lower abdomen communicate the gravity of the surgery, and are a breath of fresh air in a social media culture obsessed with the perfect post baby body.

Published three days ago, the post has since attracted more than 8.5K likes and more than 9.5K shares.

The comments offer overwhelming support, with many writing that Lee actually “took the hard way out”. Many women have shared their story in response, agreeing that the recovery is horrific.

In Australia, 32 per cent of all births are through a caesarean section. This is much higher than other parts of the world, like New Zealand which is 20 per cent, and the UK at 22 per cent.

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