Giving birth can be extremely traumatic. In the best-case scenario, it is excruciatingly painful and emotionally and physically exhausting. Worst-case scenario, however, both mother and baby can come close to losing their lives.
So one mom who had a terrifying experience in labor has had a very difficult time getting past it. But her younger sister has decided that it’s time for her to stop bringing it up in every situation. Below, you’ll find a post that she shared on Reddit, asking the internet if she was too harsh with her older sister.
This woman's sister had a traumatic experience while giving birth
But now, she's decided that it's time for her sister to stop bringing up her birth story in every situation
Giving birth is one of the most difficult and painful experiences a person can have
Giving birth is a beautiful thing. It’s how life is made, and humans have been doing it for hundreds of thousands of years. But that doesn’t mean that it’s easy for women by any means.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, the first stage of labor typically lasts between 12 and 19 hours. Then, the second stage usually lasts between half an hour and several hours. And finally, the third stage should take 30 minutes or less.
Giving birth is consistently viewed as one of the most painful experiences a human can undergo. A natural birth is seen as the most painful option, but even a C-section can come with a much longer and more intense recovery process.
And if there are any complications along the way, birth can become much more uncomfortable and traumatic than expected. Medical News Today notes that some of the most common complications include failure to progress, fetal distress, perinatal asphyxia, excessive bleeding, uterine rupture, and rapid labor.
Even today, with modern medicine, childbirth is a very risky experience for both mother and child. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that between 2018 and 2022, the maternal mortality rate in the United States increased from 17.4 per 100,000 live births to 33.6. This was a 93% increase.
Sadly, many of these women lost their lives due to disparities in healthcare, restrictions on abortion, and delayed recognition of warning signs. It can also be dangerous for moms to opt for a home birth, as they may not be equipped to deal with health complications at home.
40% of mothers would describe their childbirth experience as traumatic
When it comes to this particular story on Reddit, we don’t know exactly what happened that caused the mother and child to nearly lose their lives. But unfortunately, situations like that are far from unheard of.
40% of mothers describe giving birth as traumatic, and 5.9% of mothers go on to develop childbirth-related PTSD.
“Women with trauma may feel fear, helplessness or horror about their experience and suffer recurrent, overwhelming memories, flashbacks, thoughts and nightmares about the birth, feel distressed, anxious or panicky when exposed to things which remind them of the event, and avoid anything that reminds them of the trauma, which can include talking about it," Patrick O’Brien, a maternal mental health expert at University College Hospital in London, told the BBC.
Meanwhile, postpartum depression is something that many new moms have to battle as well. Nearly 12% of moms in the United States say they’ve dealt with postpartum depression, and about six in ten depressive episodes found in the weeks after giving birth actually began before delivery.
New mothers need a lot of support, and it’s important that their loved ones show them patience, grace, and kindness while they’re adjusting to this new phase of life. It’s understandable for the author of this story to feel frustrated and fed up with her sister, but a little bit of empathy could go a long way in this situation.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this situation in the comments below, pandas. Do you think that the author was being too harsh? Then, if you’re looking for another article from Bored Panda discussing similar themes, look no further than right here.
Many readers thought that the author was being too harsh
However, some understood where she was coming from
