Throwing the word “uneducated around”

Why is it that people like to throw the word uneducated around so easily. All the time I see people talk about moms who want to have an epidural as being uneducated. It annoys me like you wouldn’t believe. Just because someone doesn’t want to be in pain during labor doesn’t mean she is uneducated. I like to think I am fairly intelligent. I have done my share of reading on pregnancy and childbirth too. I had an epidrual, a csection, and an unmedicated vbac. I am certainly not uneducated. I hate when people assume that someone is just not educated because they made a different choice.

I plan to have natural childbirth again but I am doing this for personal reasons. I do not think that I would be harming my baby by getting an epidural, or a csection for that matter. But I really enjoyed my last childbirth experience. I was up and about right after she was born and I felt really good about my birth. My daughter and I are really close and I think part of that is because of my birth experience with her. But the truth is labor hurts. It hurts a lot. I have watched some doulas describe labor as really bad menstrual cramps. Puuuuhllllllease, menstrual cramps don’t come anywhere close to what real labor feels like. I can certainly understand why someone would choose to have an epidural. And sometimes I ask myself why I want to have natural childbirth again. I mean why on earth would someone purposely choose to go through that much pain when they don’t have to. For me, the reason I want to do it again is because it was an amazing experience, like running a race, and it felt overwhelming to push my baby out and know I did it and could do it. If you never try it, you just never know if you really could have done it. I liked my natural birth and am proud of myself but I certainly don’t think anyone is uneducated if they choose to have an epidural.