I feel really disappointed that some of us here feel that their decisions are being attacked because some of us who have "been there" and feel less than great about it shared their stories.

I can't - I won't - sugar coat my feelings about my son's birth because it might make someone else upset or defensive. This experience is mine, for better or worse. Just as other mums births are their own to experience, whether they have an elective c/section or birth some other way. I'm sorry some people feel judged, that is so far from the intent here. In saying my experience was not what I wanted, I'm not saying you're making a mistake. Comparing my c/section to that of another woman who has made the informed choice to have one is, as someone pointed out already, comparing apples and oranges. They are two very different things.

When I agreed to be induced with my second baby I made one critical error - having had a previous vaginal birth, I somehow had it in my head that I was "immune" from being "one of those poor women" who end up under the knife at the hands of an impatient OB. After all, my pelvis had been "tested" in a previous birth and it had "passed". No one was going to try to tell me I needed a c/section because my baby was too big, or whatever other reason.
So I went along with being induced because I had already had an induced labour before, and that one turned out ok. My body could handle it and nothing would go wrong this time either.

When nothing went to plan I was shocked and in retrospect I shouldn't have been - the writing was on the wall for my caesar before I ever even checked into the hospital. If I hadn't been so ****y and had bothered to seriously "do my research" I would've known that from the start. Actually, I wouldn't even have had to do any serious "research" - it's pretty easy to find out how common it is for induced births in mother's with GD to end in caesareans.

I share this with others in the hope that they will NOT do what I did. In the hope that they will take some ownership of what happens to them and their babies, stand up for their right to be treated respectfully, and for the right of their babies to be welcomed into the world by a mother who will have positive feelings and memories of their birth for the rest of her life. There is alot at stake here - healthy babies are the number one priority, no one disputes that. But after that there is so much more. Birth is not just a means to an end. It is a process and from that process comes not only a baby, but a mother.