Cesarean Images – How Do You Feel About Them?

At our monthly ICAN of the Twin Cities meeting this past Monday, we watched three breech birth videos: a vaginal breech at home, a vaginal breech in the hospital, and a cesarean for breech. After the videos, we talked about how difficult it is for some of us to watch cesarean videos because it looks so violent, or because it brings back difficult memories.

Then the discussion turned to whether or not any of us have pictures or videos of our own cesarean births and if we ever look at them.

There were several different responses in our group:

• Some women did not have any pictures or videos of their own cesareans because it was not allowed in the operating room or there was not enough time to arrange for it
• Some women had pictures or videos but found them too traumatizing to view
• Other women felt ashamed to show those images to others because of feelings of failure or that the birth was not beautiful
• For some, including myself, the pictures we have are the only “memories,” aside from our scar, of our cesareans because we were under general anesthesia

How about you? Do you have pictures or videos of your cesarean births? Do you view them? If so, when and with whom? If not, why not?