I was in the OR at the end of my wife's C-section for our first child. They asked me if I wanted to look behind the curtain and see him.

Just a dude holding a baby with a cord running into my wife's organs. I was high as f on adrenaline, but that image was seared into my memory. Then I came back and looked at my wife, ACTUALLY HIGH AS FUCK on pain killers and so happy to hear him crying before she got to see him. All the while a team of badasses are putting her back together.

Like 2 years later she's like "Im ready for another baby" and I was instantly like "Man, nature is metal. But also thought, she didn't see what I see or she'd nope out of that shit lol.

I love her deeply and having witnessed that shit, respect all aspects of her as a person.

I guess my point here is... If YOU decide you need a C-section, comparing it directly to a medieval practice version of it isn't representative to the modern version. It was still a wild surgery and the recovery was brutal, but somehow, my wife forgot all of that and chose to do it again. Until the next kid and second C-Section, where she raged at me for not reminding her of this part lol. Until like two years again after when she turned to me and was like "I think I want another baby" and I was like...wtf..."What about all the surgery and recovery. "I mean. It wasn't that bad right."

Flashes of her crying while she took her post surgery poops.

"It looked pretty brutal honey."

"I guess. But I really want a girl."

I also recognize this is not the experience of all women. Just trying to say, a healthy amount of fear for a serious thing is valid, but also, the drugs in the moment were pretty powerful, and the "mother's black out the bad parts of birth" mental aspects also seem pretty strong.