Thoughts...

I'm a member of a board that has been recently having a discussion regarding vaginal birth and c-section. Some of the posters don't quite seem to understand why some of the women who had c-sections weren't quite happy about it, and then it spiraled into the usual 'you should be grateful' etc business. So, I thought about it a little bit and came up with an analogy. I ran it by a friend who was unhappy with her birth experience, and she said I got it, so I'll post it here.

I like to know that I've earned whatever good things I get. I enjoy the process of working for reward. It makes the reward that much sweeter to me to have sweated for it. I spent my pregnancy training for labor, much the way an athlete prepares for the Olympics. I worked my tail off trying to prepare my mind and my body for this event. I was working hard to be in shape to compete. I'm pretty sure I'd have felt cheated if I worked so hard to get to the Olympics, only to have the officials call the games off and give all of the athletes gold medals simply for showing up. Sure, I'd be thrilled to have a gold medal, but I'd certainly regret not having had the opportunity to earn it.