My Child Is Beautiful, My Pregnancy Was Not

Let’s get it out of the way. Yes, pregnancy is a miracle. We get that. I love my infant son to pieces. He was worth it. Okay, cool.

Let’s get another thing straight. Not every pregnancy/birth is a beautiful, picturesque event where the family is gathered round a beaming mother who is holding her newborn bundle of joy, said new mother is wheeled out of the hospital with new human being in her arms, and then there is a parade and paparazzi abound as said new mother does the Miss America wave.

Let’s cut the crap.

Just right here, right now. I’m done with it. Am I bitter? Maybe.

My newborn was taken to a NICU in a different hospital than me, because there wasn’t enough room. I pushed for over four hours which then ironically resulted in a c-section. My newborn son had sepsis, and we both almost died. Bitter? Possibly. Not alone? Without a doubt. My story has been repeated over and over, so why are we portraying this fairy tale?

You can keep your pregnancy *glow* and your effortless delivery. I’ll stay over here with the realists. My son Tripp is beautiful. My pregnancy was ugly and my delivery was absolutely hideous. CAN THE UGLY PREGNANCIES PLEASE STAND UP?!

We came, we saw, we barely were able to deliver.

If labor and delivery was a class we barely scrapped by with a D-

We were the ugly step sisters of labor.

Yet through it all, we conquered.

And maybe just maybe, that makes pregnancy beautiful after all.