This is a significant year for both my kids: the older one turns 21 and the youngest is 18. I love them madly of course but looking back to the day they were born and reminiscing fondly is not a thing I do.

Both my boys were delivered by emergency c-section at a hospital in London. With my second child, I was told my life had to be saved. My memories of this night are very hazy but visceral, and it took me a very long time to recover.

I truly think that my body still carries the legacy of these traumatic birth experiences, even after all these years. When I read Rachel Somerstein’s book Invisible Labor: The Untold Story of the Cesarean Section, I finally started to make sense of the experience. It’s a brilliant book and a difficult read - there were many times I had to put it down and take a walk around the block, just to process what Rachel writes about.

Rachel, and midwife Helena Grant, are my guests on this episode of Overlooked, and we have a really in-depth conversation about this topic. I’ve been calling it ‘c-section’ for the longest time (which is how everyone refers to it in the UK) and Helena raised a really interesting point during our conversation that this ought to be called a ‘cesarean birth’ instead - take a listen to her reasons why in this episode.

We talked about the origins of this surgery too, which in the United States was first practiced on enslaved women. Even now, Black mothers are 25 per cent more likely to have cesareans here in the US. We also talked about recovery time from this life-changing surgery - much longer than you would imagine.

​Also VBACs. And then, why the rate of c-sections is so high here, which made for a really fascinating conversation (along with this piece, on bringing the rates down).

Did you have a cesarean birth? Hit reply and tell me your story.

Anyway, next week my youngest turns 18 so happy birthday to him: I wish the world we're handing over to our kids was in better shape but Gen Z (and my kids) fill me with hope somehow, so I'm clinging on to that for the moment.

What else I’m following:

💥 The National Academies of Sciences and Schmidt Sciences have a science communication award that's now open for submissions. I was an awardee back in the fall last year and this was a game changer for me and Overlooked, so if you're considering applying, here's more info, and a fun video featuring yours truly, along with my cohort.​

💥 Peptides are having a moment. I take them but never knew any of this stuff.​

💥 I had a 14 hour travel day last week and listened to a bunch of indie podcasts that made me feel seen, and maybe they'll do the same for you.

Wishing you the best of health,

Golda

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