Mum explains why she was ‘too smart to push’ when giving birth

A mum has explained why she was "too smart to push" when giving birth to her daughter.

Australian journalist Angela Mollard said that she was sick of people judging her for having an elective C-section during her second pregnancy. In an article for the Daily Telegraph, the mum-of-two explained that during her first labour, her daughter had to be born via emergency C-section due to Angela's rapidly dropping heart rate. Angela said that she is sick of being deemed "too posh to push" when she was, in fact, "too smart to push." She wrote:

"When an obstetrician with a medical degree and several years’ experience told me 20 hours into labour with my eldest daughter that her heart rate was dropping and he urgently needed to get her out via a C-section, I did what was best for the both of us. "Three years later when another obstetrician examined me, read my notes and concluded I had a 50 per cent chance of having a successful natural birth with my second child, I decided the odds weren’t high enough and opted for another caesarean."

Angela wrote that she doesn't agree with calling rising numbers of C-section births "alarming." She said that 33 percent of babies born in Australia in 2014 were born via C-section, so the shame that often comes to women who elect to have them is directed at a lot of mothers. In Ireland, rates of C-section deliveries are on the rise, with an increase of 30 percent seen over the last 20 years. This rate is considerably higher than many other European countries. You can read Angela's piece in full here.