I know of two women that have chosen C/S as they need the baby born by a definate date and also they are afraid of a natural birth (think they don't have the pain tolerance).

I have never had a C/S, I had two natural births, the first induced. But I had open stomach surgery around 3 years ago for severe endometriosis and ruptured endometriomas where for some reasont they reckoned they couldn't do keyhole.

I remember the exact moment I woke up from that surgery. While I was still out, I had reacted to the morphine they were pumping into me (I'm allergic to it), so when I awoke, I was without drugs and literally felt like I had been gutted. I knew then what it was like to be stabbed repeatedly in the stomach. The next two days were like this while the awful people tried to find something for the pain, the only thing I could take was pethidine that I wasn't allergic too, but the hospital had a no peth policy. I vomitted from the new drugs they tried as I'm allergic to most all painkillers and I ripped a bit of my wound open.

I truly have never gone through a worse, more painful experience and 2 weeks later, that and some major life issues I had at the time made me have a total mental breakdown...still a few months there I don't remember at all. The mental breakdown actually ended up being a good thing as it got my out of an awful situation, but I know for sure I wouldn't have had it if it wasn't for that surgery.

That changed me, waking up in that much pain, it changed something inside that has never gone back the same again. I went through two long posterior natural births with no drugs, and that was a walk in the park compared to recovering from open surgery.

I'm actually terrified of needing a caeser this time around and I have vocalized already unless someone is going to DIE, I am not considering one for a second. I probably have an abnormal fear of C/s because of my experience...but I remember that and I think of going through all that with a baby to look after...how do women do it?