Caesarean Section - The Easy Way Out?

I have wondered whether to write this post or not, I never got to do the natural birth, much to my contempt, both of my children were born by Caesarean section.
But there seems to be a stigma going around that having a C-section is the 'easy way out' when it comes to giving birth. Are they right? Does it make me less of a woman?

When I got pregnant with Thomas I always wanted the 'perfect' birth, I wanted the water birth with no medication, the immediate skin to skin and to be able to go home that very same day.
Unfortunately, that idea was pretty quickly snuffed out by the consultants.
See here forThomas and Ewans birth stories to get more of an idea of why.

Instead I was left feeling like someone had cut me open, reached inside my stomach and rummaged around in there for a bit, taken a few bits out and then sewed me back up again - oh wait.. yeah that did happen.
As much as it sounds relatively easy, I mean, all you have to do is lie there whilst completely numb right? It is still classed as major abdominal surgery and the recovery is really tough, not to mention the newborn baby who now solely relies on you for everything, you barely have the muscle strength to lift your child, let alone anything else.
For the first week you are walking around feeling like your insides might drop out. You ache all of the time, just getting up the stairs is a task in itself.
I was one of the lucky ones, my body is pretty good at recovering quickly, but your body needs at least 3 months for you to start feeling like you have fully recovered.

Those are just some of the things you have to deal with when you have had a caesarean birth, don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that having a natural birth is no walk in the park, but does that invalidate caesarean Mothers, and why?

When I had the kids, all too often I got told, "oh lucky you, not having to push" "you don't know how hard it is having to push naturally like I did" "lucky you got to sleep through it all"
Those are just some of the comments I got, and after having Ewan especially, those comments hurt, so much so I would leave the room and cry about it.

So to anyone thinking that Caesarean Section might be the easy way out, think again, and to anyone thinking of having an elective Caesarean, be warned.. It's not as easy as you are lead to believe!

Let me know what you think, are caesareans really as easy as they're made out to be?

Thanks for reading,

Anna xx