I don't think many are reading anyone else's posts or responses Sush... everyone is coming in with their experiences and thats it.

I agree Kelly. I worry about a society that can't see past the "my, mine, I". I fail to see how describing a personal account applies to this discussion... we are not talking about individual situations... this is a thread about information for ALL women. To be honest i'm skimming over the personal accounts of emergency c/sections... they are totally off topic.

Hoobley, Sush, Maz, Mayaness, Wintergreen, great contributions I have to share the love for some of you but I'll come back to your posts when i can.

One thing Wintergreen said has really stuck with me: the notion that giving birth is not like having a tooth pulled in a dentist's chair... it's more like driving a car. Great analogy. I wish more women could see it that way as well. A great way to illustrate that one is a passive experience (tooth pulling) and the other (birth) should be an active experience. Get your "baby on board" car sticker and put it on your bellies.

Sometimes the riskiest attitude is the "ok how can I get this baby extracted with the minimum of pain" one. Pain doesn't have to be feared... athletes (eg marathon runners) embrace pain as a means toward an end. I think that many OB's take advantage of a woman's fear as they coerce them into unnecessary c/sections. That really needs to stop. If c/section stats were published and made easily accessible it might be more likely to stop.