Is it a mum’s right to choose?
Denise Van Outen has spoken of her guilt at choosing to have a C-section when she gave birth to her daughter.
The TV host is mum to seven-year-old Betsy and speaking on ITV’s Loose Women this morning, she explained that she chose to have the procedure having seen women around her struggle in childbirth.
“When I got pregnant, I was so stressed,” she said.
“I hold my hands up, I went for an elective caesarean. My mum almost died giving birth and my sister had a terrible birth.
“My best friend had also just had a traumatic birth when the cord around her baby’s neck. There’s this whole stigma thing about too posh to push.
“I was so traumatised, I wasn’t sleeping properly.”
Denise and daughter Betsy in 2014.She admitted that she was concerned with what other people thought about her choice.
“You do still, to this day, feel like people are judging you.
“Even now, if I were to fall pregnant again, I would want to have a natural birth beacuse I still feel guilty.”
Speaking about body image, Denise also told fellow panellists Coleen Nolan, Nadia Sawalha and Anne Diamond that she is conscious about passing on her own anxieties to her daughter.
She said she was never happy with her figure when she was younger and wished she had more curves.
“This is my message to my younger self: stop stressing because one day you’ll have to watch what you eat!
“Betsy is seven years old now. I think it’s so important to not speak about diets or weight in front of her.”
