Birth... It Wounds and Heals...

The other day I read a post on a blog (sorry I can't remember where to link) about what an awful time a lady had in labour. It's usually the third or fourth question we ask after what gender the baby is, what weight and is everyone ok... We ask "did it go ok?" It being labour. Well I probably never asked that before I had babies, but now I am desperate for the birth story. All of it. Every gory detail. There's some kind of Mummy solidarity in sharing a birth story. I almost always manage to get a very detailed birth story out of mummies who come for newborn photographs... Perks of the job and all.

It's important to me, not just because I love all things baby related, but also because I know how I felt when it's a bumpy ride. I wouldn't call my labour and birth with Euna "bad" because I'm far too grateful that eventually we had a happy ending, but it was hard. It was so hard and at times very scary  and I wasn't ok with that for a while. I cried quite often and had a lot of feelings related to failure and disappointment and a few thoughts of "what if there hadn't of been a happy ending". When I talked about my birth I needed my friends and family to know how scared I'd been and how hard it was. In all honesty I felt like I deserved a medal for surviving it.

But then I had a "good" time of it. Relative to Euna, having Bow was breeeeeeze. I don't expect it would be the stuff of YouTube's finest plinky plonky hypnobirthing birth videos because it flipping hurt and I swore like a sailor, however it was fine and mercifully short. 

What do I know for experiencing two pretty far apart marks on the spectrum? Well I know a "bad" labour and birth can hurt long after you have your joyous bundle in your arms. It can even scar. Fortunately I also got to find out that a "good" labour and birth can heal your "bad" labour and birth wounds. It can heal your faith in your body and your womanhood. It can heal your confidence and give you better perspective on what caused those old wounds.