I love hearing birth stories! I really do. I thought they were interesting before I had one of my own to tell, but now it's almost more exciting. I'm not sure why. Well I know why, when you have your own experience it's easier to relate, plus you get to relive one of the greatest moments of your life.

Here's how this post relates to one ups and all that. Have you ever noticed that some labor stories are worn with a badge of honor? I have heard quite a few and think that ALL labor stories should have that badge. You brought another human into the world, however it came about is beautiful and amazing. Nine times out of ten it doesn't happen in the way you planned. At least from the stories I've heard it doesn't. Sometimes, now I don't know if it's just me, it seems that not only are there those who want to share their birth story they feel the need to one up the birth stories they have heard.

Things like it took someone 21 hours of labor before they had their baby is followed with, well it took me 39 and I had no drugs. Or if one had her baby in a hospital another talks about their at home birth as though that was almost better than the hospital birth. I don't know if I'm just sensitive because I had a c-section when I didn't want to and every time someone talks about their natural birth and how much they worked for it there's a part of me that thinks I didn't work hard enough. And to hear some people talk they may think I didn't, even if I physically was unable to do so. Literally, they would have had to break my pelvis to get my DD through. My midwife even said it wasn't possible. Yet there is a part of me that feels like I failed my daughter by not having her naturally.

So then maybe everyone isn't trying to one up me, I just feel like they are because they had the natural ending I wanted. I didn't want to use drugs and I didn't want to have surgery, but I literally needed to do both because my child was not entering this world easily. I know this, the doctor told me after my section that it was the right thing to do. Now he could have been saying that because he could see how heartbroken I was to make that decision, but either way I believe him. I couldn't do it. Yet still, even now, I wish I had tried. Does my c-section make me a worse mom than someone who gave birth naturally? No. That's like saying someone who doesn't breast feed doesn't love their child as much as someone who does.

That's a whole other tangent. What I think I'm trying to say is that us mothers we need to stick together. We need to support each other and we need to know not judge each other. Yes there are some bad parents out there, there are people who should probably not be having kids, but this is not the norm. The norm are parents just like us who desperately love their children and only want what's best for them. Moms who gave up their bodies for nine months and longer to bring this person into the world. So let's wear our birth stories as a badge of honor. However your child came into the world you were instrumental in bringing them there. That is something to be proud of, not the details of how it all came about.

So you know what? My c-section scar is there to remind me what I sacrificed to bring my daughter into the world. Did I want to have major abdominal surgery to do it? After 29+ hours of labor? No. But that doesn't matter because look at the amazing person I got out of it all. If you asked me to do it all again tomorrow I would, because this beautiful end result is all that matters. :)