Viral Meme Says Moms Who Have C-Sections Are Selfish And Lazy

Another week, another viral meme making its way around Facebook. This week it’s a meme made by a group that calls themselves “Disciples of the New Dawn.” They’re trolling women who’ve had c-sections by claiming that women who’ve been through a surgical birth have “caught a lucky break” and don’t have what it takes to “get the job done.”

The group claims that c-sections are never medically necessary, because “if God has decided to call you home, it is not up to you or a doctor to reject Him. You may find yourself cast into the lake of fire for doing so. God’s Peace.” Translation: death is a better option than a surgical birth. Mkay.

This group is clearly trolling women and may or may not be satire. Then again, satire is supposed to be funny, so this doesn’t really fit the bill. Maybe they really are just a group of religious zealots who actually feel this way. Maybe it’s a troll group whose goal is to rile mothers up. The problem is, apart from the obvious religious undertones — there are actually people who feel this way and mothers who have been made to feel “less than” for not having a “natural” childbirth.

It’s easy to brush off a meme like this and laugh at all the crazy it took to make it. But the postpartum period can be very tough on women who ended up with a surgical birth when they weren’t expecting one. Memes like this one — although ridiculous — can feed that little voice in a new mom’s head that asks, “Why couldn’t I do this?” For every woman that can look at this message and brush it off, there’s a woman who it stings. And that sucks.

A surgical birth isn’t a “lucky break.” Labor is hard – period; whether you’ve pushed a baby out of your vagina or had one cut from your womb. For some of us it can be traumatic and scary — whatever route we took to birth the baby. That’s why it’s so important to constantly remind yourself when you see these memes that there is no superior way to give birth. Every woman’s experience is real and deserves to be viewed with respect.

In short — don’t feed the trolls.