Mothers know that there's no easy way to bring a baby into the world,nad lucah but new mothers are also acutely aware of the judgements others pass on pretty much every element of parenting.
Though the cesarean section is quite common -- it accounted for 32.2% of U.S. births in 2014 -- it's a surgery with its own set of challenges just like any other. Raye Lee, a new mother from Springfield, Missouri, shared her anger with the notion that her c-section -- that anyc-section -- was an "easy" alternative to vaginal birth.
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She vented her frustrations in a Facebook post that's since been shared more than 19,000 times.
"This was the most painful thing I have experienced in my life," she wrote. "I now belong to a badass tribe of mamas with the scar to prove that I had a baby cut out of me and lived to tell the tale."
Raye detailed her challenging recovery, from the "ripping pain of a body cut apart and stitched back together" when attempting to get out of bed, to learning that it will take more than 6 weeks for her core muscles to heal on their own.
"I am the strongest woman, that I know," she writes. "Not only for myself, but for my beautiful son... and I would honestly go through this every single day just to make sure I am able to see his smiling face."
The post resonated with thousands of people, many of whom shared their own c-section experiences, and thanked Raye for her honesty.
"Thank you for sharing your story," one woman writes. "It's sad that people think that a c-section is an easy way out. I didn't grow up saying 'I hope I have a c-section when I have a baby'. I never thought I would have one, but my 1st child got stuck and we both almost died so an emergency c-section was needed. Anyone that puts down a mother for having a c-section, has no heart."