"I feel like whatever small percentage of women are actually opting in to surgery rather than vaginal delivery are lacking an understanding of what surgery and recovery entails."

Same here! I've never heard of people wanting a c-section the first time out! I was terrified to have one.

There are A LOT. I would advise talking to your OB first and foremost; I'm sure he or she could lay things out in greater detail than we commenters could.

"scare them with visions of their stomachs rupturing open during pushing" - it's called uterine rupture and it's a very real risk of VBACs. Some people are at higher risk than others depending on their situation and how well the C-section was performed, but a rupture can be extremely dangerous to the baby, mother, or…

"Of course after you have the first one, you have to have all subsequent children the same way. =/ "

It really probably does depend so much on one's group of friends/relations. No one I know wanted a c-section and all dreaded the idea. Most folks around me are all rah-rah natural childbirth. :) I wonder if your friends who had c-sections had something that indicated the possibility of a c-section and kinda pushed in…

I find the idea of an elective c-section strictly for vanity to be more than a little distasteful, but I still ultimately believe in maternal choice. However, like I said, I think it is very uncommon.

If I see the words "too posh to push" one more time I am going to lose my shit. The incidences of maternal request c-sections from people who simply think they're above vaginal childbirth seem to be wildly overblown by certain groups. I'm glad to see that they're at least showing that it's mostly BS.

Haha!

"It just didn't seem like an option to me, growing up basically poor and with a very family-oriented home culture."

If progressives want to maintain the moral high ground, then we need to call out our own on problematic stuff.

VBACs are not proven safer. "Crowther and colleagues also reported on neonatal outcomes and found that the risks of fetal or infant death, or serious adverse infant outcomes, were significantly lower in planned elective repeat cesarean (0.9%) versus the planned VBAC group (2.4%)."…

I definitely wouldn't personally choose it, and I'm not planning to when I have my second. I'll take a good, old-fashioned repeat c-section. VBACs freak me out. However, they are at a decent level of risk for people who really, really want their vaginal birth.

Well, obviously anecdotes are not data, but I had my son by C-section (unstable lie, i mean turning around IN LABOR, the crazy little boy!), and we are bonded as hell! And I also had a wonderful experience. He's also never had an ear infection or been very sick. I wasn't able to breastfeed, but that was because of…

Eh, like I said, it really, really depends upon personal experience I think. Seriously horrible tears are rare, but I would think they're pretty damn painful and traumatic for some people, especially if they're poorly-repaired. (I'm wincing just thinking about it!)

Multiples are one of those situations where C-sections are frequently employed. Twins can be born vaginally, but a lot of OBs are more comfortable delivering them by C-section for a number of reasons (namely that it's not uncommon for one twin to be breech since there's not much room in there). I'm not sure if twins…

I hate that saying, "designed to give birth." Designed by whom? Whoever designed women's reproductive stuff needs to get fucking fired, because as you pointed out, it can be really dangerous.

An incision under anesthesia vs. a big old rip possibly down to the anus, all of a sudden and possibly without pain management?

Usually the insurance covers the bulk of that - or state-run health plans, which uninsured pregnant women without insurance coverage are typically automatically eligible for. Still, I ended up paying about $3k between my baby and I for all the costs of a cesarean birth and recovery.

You said just what I'm thinking.