What do YOU consider 'giving birth' to be?

Question

I came about this close | | to making my fiance sleep on the couch last night. We got into an argument about giving birth.

He says that if you have a c-section you're not giving birth. In his exact words "If you're just laying there then you're not giving birth, you're letting a doctor take the baby from your womb."

I say that if the woman has to go through 9 months of pregnancy and x number of hours of labor then it doesn't matter what hole the baby comes out of, it's still giving birth.

What do YOU consider giving birth to be?

Answer 1

I consider it to be whatever the woman having the baby considers it to be.

Answer 2

Your fiancee's mistake is an easy one to make, but I think you're right here. He's confusing "birth" with "delivery". "Birth" should be interpreted here as "a beginning" ("birth of a nation"), and the one it's being "given" to is the baby. So on those grounds, you're right: it doesn't matter how it happens, it's still "giving birth".



But let's look at your fiancee's attitude for a minute and see if we can explain something. Why would he be sour about the miracle of birth, no matter how it happens?



Nature has seen to it that he won't ever get to experience this for himself. Pregnancy can be a very difficult time to be male; and women can be surprisingly insensitive to the very partners they're expecting to support them through the experience. They often treat the same man who was once the center of their universe as a humorous sidekick at best, an unnecessary nuisance at worst.



You can help by assuring him that you aren't one of those women. That, should you have children, you'll be sharing the entire experience. You might be the one "delivering" the baby, but you'll both be "giving birth".

Answer 3

Well, considering I had an emergency c-section with a preemie who was in distress and because my blood pressure was so high the doctor thought I'd start seizing, I'd be incredibly offended if my husband said I hadn't given birth to our daughter. I actually struggled for a long time with the feelings of failure I had because I had to have a c-section, I really didn't want one, I actually wanted to go through labor and delivery, and I felt like my body failed me. I have brought two children into this world, how they got here doesn't make me any more or less of a mother.

Answer 4

I am sorry, but your fiance is ignorant. Beyond a question or a doubt.



Giving Birth is giving life. You are birthing a child which has had a gestation period in your womb and once that baby takes a breath of air, you have given birth. That baby has been connected to you through the umbilical cord, living off of your system. Once that child takes a breath of air, it is alive and therefore has been born. Regardless if it passed through your vaginal canal or through your abdomen via a c-section.



I completely and totally disagree with your fiance's theory about child birth. He could not be more wrong.



EDIT: to those thumb downers. You mean to say that a c-section is not child birth? Then does that mean that all c-section babies are never born? Of course NOT!! If you are born, you have been given birth. So, there.

Answer 5

I agree with your fiance to a point, but it is still giving birth, no matter how the baby comes into the world.I admire women who have had c-sections I don't think I could handle it. I have had 2 children through natural births and found it excruciating but I would not opt for a c section given the chance!! but yes c-section is also giving birth :)

Answer 6

Oh he would have been on that sofa for weeks....



So he isnt a father, because she just sits there while you carry the baby then, using his logic?





When I hear, 'Giving birth' I do think of the normal vaginal birth. However, c-section is still a birth, so yeah it is giving birth

Answer 7

Being a Mom who had a c-section (not by my own choosing) after 18 hours of labor, I gave birth to my daughter. It may not have been the way I wanted it to happen, but it's the only way that she was going to come into this world and it doesn't make me any less of a Mom because of it. I think your husbands thinking is ridiculous. Any mother who carries a child gives birth to that child, no matter the method.

Answer 8

I can see your husbands point. He didn't mean to diminish the fact that you went through a pregnancy and major surgery. He meant "giving birth" as something active. And, you did just lie there and have your baby cut out of you. That doesn't mean that your c section makes you any less of a mom. In his mind "giving birth" meant pushing and having a baby come ripping out of you. Men often have limited vocabulary, so sometimes you just need to brush them off. :).

Answer 9

Well if you say you "gave birth" then your implying you actively "gave birth" but if you "deliver a baby" then you're implying you had a baby, regardless of how it was birthed.



It's all in how you make the statement.

Answer 10

Well, I consider "giving birth" to be when the baby comes out of the mother, by natural means.



However, I think C-sections FOR MEDICAL REASONS are no less difficult than actually pushing it out. C sections are major surgery.



If you chose to have a C-section for anything other than a medical reason I would wonder why you got pregnant in the first place.

Answer 11

Giving birth is when the baby is separated from his mother and takes his first breath. It doesn't matter where the baby comes out.

Answer 12

whether it is through a section or through your vagina,you are still giving birth.your partner is being very insensitive to women like myself - i certainly worked for my emergency section.i still gave birth to my son even if it was through an operation

Answer 13

Definition of "Birth": "The emergence of a baby or other young from the body of its mother; the start of life as a physically separate being."



I'm pretty sure that a c-section qualifies for this. lol. Men can sure put their feet in their mouths sometimes, eh?

Answer 14

i'd consider it to include a c-section.



and while of course the semantics don't ultimately matter, i'd really expect the dad -- who knew i'd been through a pregnancy, labor, and surgery that i didn't really want -- to have enough empathy to refrain from telling me i was "just laying there."