Family

The story

I got the scar through an emergency C section for my second child. I had a bleed at the start of labour, and they put a heart monitor around my womb, they said her heartbeat was a bit faint and the birth wasn’t progressing.

She felt like she was stuck, so I asked for an emergency C section because I was worried that if her heartbeat was irregular, she might not be getting enough oxygen to her brain.

We went through to theatre and when she came out her nose was squished across onto her cheek because she had been butting face first against the side of my birth canal.

I guess my scars tell a story.

My daughter looked fine when she was born, apart from the nose, we discovered as she grew that she did have a brain injury, epilepsy and a genetic fault that happened at conception which means she has a severe learning disability and is mostly non-verbal, but constantly on the move.

People don’t notice my scar, it barely shows.

I wouldn’t change it if I could, I don’t think it matters.

In terms of where I’m at in my emotional journey with it, I was thinking, it’s funny because you can barely see my scar now because my belly hangs over it.

The thing that made my belly become floppy was having a third child, a boy eight years after my daughter was born.

Although I don’t especially like having a belly so floppy and stretched from three inhabitants, it does seem fitting that the third pregnancy has hidden the scar from the second birth. I felt like it has brought a kind of peace and balance to our family, having a third child and having my vulnerable daughter bookended by two loving siblings.