Linda, how upsetting that would have felt for you... I have had some interesting comments too from mums but what I think the problem is (which we discussed in birth class and also the conference I went to) is that these mums haven't had the proper opportunity to debrief their own births. It's so important for mums to have a chance to tell their story, in whole and uninterrupted - but who of us do?

At my birth class, we all had to do this - tell our birth stories in full, as we saw it, felt it etc. Of course this has taken forever to get through but you would be surprised the issues it brings up and the need for validation and more - some women sobbing hysterically and I was completely freaking out - what could be so emotional that it could make you sob uncontrollably? But when I had my turn, I told my story, thought about more things than I had before about the birth, then came home and sobbed uncontrolably.

Mums have a habit of being so competitive and judgemental at times. But we need to open our hearts, minds and listen with soft ears and eyes to hear each other's story. It's when our story isn't told, that we have so much inside, it can often result in destructive, unconstructive comments like this. Not to defend her comments which were out of line, but she probably had a story to tell and hasn't felt listened to. The only way to deal with it as far as strangers go, is to ignore it unfortunately. Because it's competitive people like this that make others resent pro-natural birth people and vise versa. We can believe in what we want, but not everyone who is pro-natural birth is like that - pro-intervention people can be just as distructive.