Birth Photographer Refuses to Serve C-Section Babies Because They Aren't 'Born'

For my first son, it was because he was stuck in a breech presentation and the cord was wrapped around his neck, making it impossible to try to turn him prior to delivery. For my second son, I was at a high risk for uterine rupture. For these reasons, I had to deliver my babies via C-section. And it was tough.

First I had to come to terms with the fact that I wouldn’t deliver my children as I had always hoped. But that became almost inconsequential when it came to the harder part: recovering from major surgery and then caring for my newborns. Both times my children were born, I was strapped to an OR table, my husband seated at my head. I was only able to see his eyes, since his face was covered with a mask. The lights were bright, I couldn’t move, and all I felt was tugging as my children were delivered through the incision the doctor made in my abdomen. Both times, it took nearly a month before I could walk without pain. And both times I still had to function as any other mother must after childbirth: I still had to breastfeed, change diapers, wake up at all hours of the night (in writhing pain) to a screaming newborn, and in the case of my second son’s birth, I still had to be a mother to a toddler as well. It was the farthest thing from the “easy way out” and as far as I can tell, I’m a mother through and through.

That’s our birth story. And while it wasn’t what I had hoped for, it allowed my children to arrive in this world healthy. The C-sections that I had to endure literally saved my life and those of my children.

I recently came upon a Sanctimommy Facebook post that nearly made my blood boil. An expecting mom learned that the birth photographer she had hired refused to shoot the birth when she found out that the mother would be delivering via C-section. You can read the back-and-forth for yourself, because it’s almost unbelievable unless you see it:

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines birth as “the emergence of a new individual from the body of its parent.” As far as I can tell, a C-section is covered by that definition. Whether a baby arrives vaginally with no intervention, or with every drug on the planet in an operating room, that baby is born. Amazingly, moms had wonderful comments on the Facebook post above, posting pictures of their babies that were “never born”: