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Pregnancy

01st Jun 2018

What is a ‘belly birth’ and why do some new mums want us to use the term more often?

Jade Hayden

Bringing a child into the world is no easy feat.

Whether it’s through a vaginal birth or C-section, giving birth to a child is a big deal.

It’s painful, it’s stressful, it’s entirely amazing, but it’s also one of the hardest things you’ll ever put your body through.

And yet, a lot of people still tend to see C-sections as “the easy way out” or “not as difficult” as vaginal births.

And while we all, of course, absolutely know this not to be true, lots of other people don’t.

They don’t know the recovery time associated with C-sections, or the length of time that the birth takes, or aftercare that’s necessary that may not be associated with vaginal births.

So, in order to combat this, some new mums have decided that they want to change the way we talk about C-sections – most notably by calling them ‘belly births’ instead.

Doula, Flor Cruz, recently told PopSugar that she refers to C-sections as such because she wants to change the connotations associated with them.

“Change the language, change the mindset,” she said.

“We connect more to the surgery aspect when we say caesarean or c-section. We are describing the act of major abdominal surgery.

“We don’t necessarily highlight and celebrate the bringing forth of life. The joy of a child being born. Parents being born.

“[Belly birth] is far more inclusive. It reminds everyone that a birth did indeed happen, not just a surgery.”

So what do you think? Are you a supporter of the belly birth?