I suspect there’s magical thinking at work here, that natural is always best and if a woman just stuck it out she’d have given birth vaginally…. somehow. There’s also a lot of fetishization of pain as proof of “real” motherhood. I mean, I could have stuck it out while the fetal vital signs deteriorated and possibly given birth to a dead or seriously injured baby, if I had not died myself first. I’d much rather be less of a natural woman while living with a healthy baby. There is much to criticize about hospital birthing practices that make C-sections likelier, but none of that is the fault of individual women. (Thank you while I hold my phone out of my covetous offspring’s reach!)