Did you know April is Cesarean Awareness Month?

I didn’t until this weekend. And I’m still thoroughly naive when it comes to all the myriad ways we judge women and mothers because my first thought was, “oh, what a good idea! A shout out to all the cesarean mamas!” HA!

Instead, I’ve come across a lot of articles using April to encourage more education for pregnant mothers. If they only knew the risks and complications! Which I think tips the scales to fairly insulting of pregnant women and new mothers.

SO, I wanted to cry the ugly cry when I came across this piece on Scary Mommy, written by Monet Moutrie and Kelsey Gossett, two birth photographers. In The Truth About C-Section Mamas, with photographers’ keen eye for detail and emotion, they beautifully capture what it is like for a pregnant women to have a cesarean. Like many of us, I know a lot of women who’ve had c-sections; I don’t think I truly understood their courage and resilience until now.

Go read it, then come back here so we can ugly cry together and do a big group hug.

Also, if you haven’t come across this yet, The New Yorker published an incredible article a few years ago that describes exactly how a woman’s body transforms during labor and delivery, and also describes in medical detail how a cesarean is performed. As Atul Gawande describes it, “Then comes what still seems surreal to me. You reach in, and, instead of finding a tumor or some other abnormality, as surgeons usually do when we go into someone’s belly, you find five tiny wiggling toes, a knee, a whole leg.”

(The New Yorker article might not be the greatest if you’re currently pregnant. Let’s just say. LOTS OF DETAIL.)