Powerful C-Section Photo Goes Viral For All The Right Reasons

In the last few years, women have been a lot more open about the lumps, bumps and lines that they’re left with following the birth of their child.

Yet with all of the positive snapshots of stretchmarks and mum tums that have been shared on social media, the subject of C-sections (and the scars they leave) has remained relatively off-limits. Until now. 

One poignant photograph of a newborn baby and the caesarean section scar that brought it into the world has taken the Internet by storm. 

The stunning black and white image, captured by photographer Helen Aller, 29, shows the scar left by a procedure that saved both the baby and its unnamed mother’s life.

And it’s clearly had an impact. Since sharing the pic on her professional Facebook page, the image has been seen by millions of people and shared hundreds of thousands of times.

“I photographed this mama’s pregnancy a while back and she was telling me how terrified she was of having a C-section,” Helen captioned the image.

“Well last week she went into labor but had to have an emergency C-section after complications. She asked me to come over this morning and shoot this particular image as her worst nightmare proved to be what saved her and her child’s lives.”

C-sections remain a fairly sensitive subject. Many pregnant women, like the mother in this image, are terrified that they’ll have to have one while other mums are quick to voice their opinions about women who either opt of have to have one, claiming they haven’t really given birth if the child wasn’t born vaginally.

But whatever anyone’s opinion on the surgery itself, most of us will agree that it’s incredible brave of this new mum to share her scar with the world.

“I had to have an emergency c-section with my first,” Carla Johnston commented on the photo. “It took a long time to come to terms with it, I read too many comments on stupid blogs like Mamamia (which, btw, I steer well clear of nowadays) from judgey women saying that women like me hadn’t given birth, we’d had our babies surgically removed, and other bullshit like we don’t bond with our babies as well as women who’d had natural births.

“My second baby was born via c-section too - the problems which caused my first baby to almost die were still present and it was too much of a risk. My scar is a little smaller than this one looks, and two years later is a very faint white line. It doesn’t bother me, I’ve grown to like it as it symbolises my babies arriving safely into the world, and besides, the only people who are ever going to see it are my husband, my children and my doctors. Not because I’m ashamed, simply that it’s unlikely given its location!(sic).”

But then again, there are those who aren’t quite so open-minded and understanding. Since posting her photo, Helen’s admitted to being on the receiving end of a considerable amount of backlash with some Facebook users branding the image as “offensive” and “disgusting”. 

Some people have even tried to have the image removed from the social media site.

C-sections are becoming more popular with many women requesting one to avoid the pain of giving birth naturally – particularly in the US. C-sections-on-demand (as they’re dubbed) aren’t quite as common here in the UK as the majority of women give birth on the NHS, where doctors have a strong say in the type of birth their patients have. You can read more about C-sections here.