Like most mums-to-be, Amy Dawes, 35, wanted a natural vaginal birth. However, more than 12 hours into labour, and in a great deal of pain, Amy was given a decision: forceps or caesarean.
Amy has written at length about the traumatic delivery on her blog, the Mummy Manifesto.
“I knew nothing about forceps. I thought it sounded scary … but after all the research I’d done I’d come to the conclusion that caesareans were pretty bad and rough for the baby,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
Amy took the forceps option and it wasn’t until 16 months later, the true damage was revealed.
Her pelvic floor muscle had torn completely off her pubic bone and she was diagnosed with a bilateral levator avulsion causing a stage two bladder and bowel prolapse.
“Fifty percent of women who deliver a baby vaginally will suffer from pelvic organ prolapse at some point in their lifetime, but no one talks about it, it’s a silent epidemic,” she warns.
Amy is raising awareness of the risks of a forceps delivery, by way of the Mummy Manifesto, so women are informed about assisted births, instead of immediately thinking a caesarean is a bad/traumatic option.
