Before DD was born I thought the same thing, surely stitches in the belly would heal better than the hoohah. I ended up having an episiotomy for forceps delivery (you can't really tear naturally for that) after a long labour with bub in a bad spot and distressed, and it wasnt that bad. I also had 2 friends who had c/s around 4 weeks before I gave birth and while they both recovered quickly and had a well known excellent ob, I was still up and running around in the gym before them. So yeah while it sucks to have a cut like that down yonder, a c/s is major surgery so will likely (not always I know but that depends on you, bub and the dr) take longer to heal. And DD is only 5 1/2 weeks old now I have no pain and no scarring from my epi -yes I've looked lol!