Did you have a vaginal birth?
A C-section?
Epidural?
Gas?
Did you breastfeed?
Get mastitis?
Bottle feed?
Does it really even matter?
As long as your baby is happy, healthy and mum is happy and healthy, does it really matter?
So many people asked me if I had a ‘normal’ birth.
By normal do you mean vaginal? Yes, I did have a vaginal birth to answer your questions, but is this ‘normal’?
Who says so?
Why do we use words such as normal? It only makes others feel like they had an abnormal birth and why on earth would we want to make others feel that way?
Same goes with breastfeeding. I breast fed Arabella for the first 4 months of her life. I didn’t stop because I had to stop, I stopped because I chose to stop. I fell pregnant with our second around this time and it felt right to start weaning Arabella onto her bottle full time.
I was proud to have fed her for 4 months and feel proud that she now enjoys having a bottle with her Dad, Grammy, Pop and anyone else that would like to engage with our beautiful girl during feeding time.
Did you have an epidural? I did. I booked that shit in before I even stepped foot into the hospital.
Does this mean I am weak? No.
Does it mean it wasn’t a ‘normal’ birth? No.
It meant that I was having contractions for 5.5 hours before I was given one and was in so much pain both my body and Arabella’s heart rate couldn’t handle it.
Did the epidural mean that I didn’t experience a ‘natural’ birth? No.
I still felt all the feels without feeling the excruciating pain of pushing a baby out of my vagina.
And guess what….. I had a happy healthy baby and I am a happy and healthy mum.
Please try your best to change your language.
Don’t use words such as ‘normal’.
Let’s change it to vaginal or c-section. That way we don’t run the risk of making anyone feel like they have failed or making anyone feel like they were abnormal.
Mums go through enough as it is without having others making them feel even worse.
Remember, we are in this together. Let’s stick together.
Chelsea xoxo