Honest Question...

So, I've been thinking a lot lately about an issue that seems to be a huge thing in our culture right now. These thoughts have been running through my head partially because of the moms message board I'm on and partially because of conversations I've had with people. The issue is labor and delivery. It seems that we are obsessed with how, when and where we give birth to our babies, and the debate gets heated!! It starts as a conversation: "Oh when was your baby born?" and turns somehow into a heated argument: "You had medication????" (the horror!) or "you're crazy to give birth at home. The best place is in a hospital!" Since nobody likes to feel like their choices are being insulted, comments like this turn quickly into: "You're so ignorant, you've never even tried a homebirth." or "don't judge me for getting an epidural it's my decision!" and it all spirals into a big mess with hurt feelings. And the crazy part is, it's a useless argument!!!! I mean come on! We've gotten to the point in this argument where moms who had to have c-sections are made to feel as though they are less of a mother than others. They hear things like "oh they took your baby out" and "too posh to push." Let's face it people, mothers who have had c-sections are not any less of a mother just because they didn't push the baby out! They still have a baby at the end. They still have to take care of another human being 24/7 regardless of how the baby got from the uterus to the outside world. Most of the time there is a good reason for their c-section. A lot of the time these women are crushed that they were unable to have a natural birth. They don't need friends family and strangers making it worse by saying or implying ridiculous things like those statements. Women who have epidurals are no less mothers than women who don't. Just because we opted for a pain free delivery does not make us lazy, selfish, or stupid. We made the decision to have a pain free delivery because that's what was best for us at the time. For me, it was not the pain I couldn't bear, it was the exhaustion. I gavae birth to a perfectly healthy baby who scored a 10 on his apgar test! He was not lethargic or anything. I did not have any problems whatsoever with recovery. I never even took an ibuprofen for the pain after delivery because I didn't have any! :) I call the epidural my "happy juice" because I had an AWESOME delivery after my epi. So, we don't need strangers, friends and family telling us that we are lazy and selfish because we chose pain medication. Women who go natural are such strong women!!! They are stronger women than I! I think it's so cool that there are women out there who are determined to experience childbirth the way women for thousands of years experienced it and they stick to it and follow through! Go natural childbirths and homebirths! They don't need family friends and strangers telling them they are crazy! They're not crazy they're strong!!!!!! But even after all of this the bottom line is that we are all mothers no matter how our children got into this world. Isn't a healthy happy baby and healthy happy mommy what really matters here? Let's band together as mommies to support each other rather than tear each other down because of our labor and delivery choices. That's over now and in the past. No matter how your baby was born, you are a kick butt woman cuz you're a mommy!!!!!