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Never is there a truer sentence than "the best things in life are only truly appreciated when they are really earned", and this totally applies for Childbirth, you speak to any mother in the world, and no matter how difficult they found childbirth to be for them, there is no greater reward than that moment when the naked, bloodstained baby is put into your arms and looks into your eyes, it is miracle how quickly the feeling of all the pain just seconds before becomes a distance memory.

I have had 2 children, both with their own individual and small complications, but in the end I was fortunate enough, to have achieved a natural vaginal birth with both of them, and I do truly believe that women who have had C sections, whether through choice or not, cannot replicate that feeling of euphoria when giving birth naturally.

There would be the obvious answer that if childbirth was not painful and without various complications, then the population would be massive, but on the other hand, when I speak to other mums, they truly cannot remember the extent of the pain, and I know when I was in labour with my 2nd child, I swore blind that the pain was twice as bad as it was with my 1st child, but of course it was not, it is just that I could not remember.

Women tend to base their choice of having further children on the way that they pregnancy ran, so that if they had bad sickness, or reduced to crutches towards the end, or chronic heartburn, as these are the feeling that do not get forgotten, I myself will never forget how uncomfortable I was in bed, even as early as 4 months pregnant, laying on my side used to give me terrible pain in my hip, so I would change sides, and within 30 mins the other side was painful and I remember crying night after night as by 4 in the morning both hips were so painful I was reduced to trying to sleep sitting up, which I found near impossible until you reach that point that you are so tired you don't care if you are standing on your head !

Childbirth is meant to be painful, obviously the logistics (such of babies head v size of cervix speak for itself), but as we all know people who work hard to acheive their life goals, nice house, nice car, holidays can totally appreciate them more as they know the graft that has gone into them, whereas those that are rich anyway can never truly appreciate the value of money, and the same goes with childbirth, I will never forget my mums story about when she had me, she was on her 3rd marriage to my dad (and she is still with him), and she had been told that having had 3 children already, 5 miscarriages and 2 stillborns that her body was not capable of surviving another attempt of having a child, but she kept this information from my dad and was determined to have a child that belonged to the both of them, and in having me she actually died and she can recollect the tunnel and white light story and she had to be revived, and she was very poorly for a long time, but to date she insists that it was all so worth it and she would have gone through it a dozen times if she had to.

Learn more about this author, Catherine Hollis.
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