What happens when your birth experience completely contradicts everything you prepared for? For author Hannah Marsh, an emergency cesarean section after 30 grueling hours of labor left her feeling not just physically scarred, but emotionally devastated. Despite cesarean sections accounting for roughly 43% of UK births today, Hannah found herself woefully unprepared for this possibility – having focused exclusively on hypnobirthing techniques and natural birth preparation.

In the years that followed, Hannah began to reconcile her experience of birth as she discovered the history, magic and tales of caesarean birth in years gone by. Hannah's book "Thread: A Cesarean Story of Myth, Magic and Medicine" reframes cesarean birth not as a failure but as part of a rich historical narrative "full of power and magic and ingenuity and determination." By weaving together personal experience, historical research, and mythological connections, Hannah offers something rarely found in birth literature – a validating, empowering narrative specifically for cesarean births.

This conversation challenges the polarized debates in modern birth discourse by highlighting historical parallels between today's tensions and early 20th century divisions between "operators" and "non-operators" in obstetrics. Hannah reminds us that beneath these seeming oppositions, most birth practitioners share the common goal of supporting safe, positive birth experiences.

For anyone who has felt their birth story wasn't worth celebrating or those preparing for the possibility of various birth scenarios, this episode provides both validation and a new perspective on what it means to bring life into the world – regardless of the path taken.

Buy Hannah's Book Thread here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thread-Caesarean-story-magic-medicine/dp/1786584484?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

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