To be sad that, in my lifetime, I will never experience natural childbirth?

[Greyhound]

I am about to turn 45. I am not going to have another baby. My beautiful "miracle" son (born after four miscarriages, three emergency surgeries including an emergency section under a general anaesthetic) is nearly 12 and I am thankful, every day, that he is here.

However, I watch programmes like OBEM and, horrific though some of the natural births seem in terms of pain and trauma, and it hits me - it will never happen and I will never know what it's like to push a baby out and give birth.

My dh didn't want a second child. It caused (and, sometimes, still does) resentment in me.

It's too late now and it has really hit me very hard that I have missed out on an experience I, naively, expected to have.

Greyhound - I am one of those who lost DC. I actually didn't want to put your feelings into perspective as it were, but to defend them, as IMO, I have had the worst outcome possible to childbirth, and yet I still feel very strongly about my birth experiences and how important a vaginal birth was for DD, and how upsetting a section was for DS.

And I defy anyone to tell me I shouldn't feel that way

And I'm now terrified of my planned vbac because of everyone's negative experiences!!

Might need to go and find a positive vbac thread

Did 'normal' birth - bloody painful, would of happily never done it again
Crash section - V scary, decided never ever to have another baby
Elective CS - calm, relaxed, son wee'd all over consultant, would happily have this again

Of course you are entitled to feel whatever you feel! I can't believe people are suggesting otherwise! Yes there are people less fortunate, there are in every situation, but you are still allowed to feel sadness about missing out on something you thought you would experience.

I consider myself very lucky that I was able to have a natural birth. I am glad I did it, however I doubt I would ever have another child. I had a horrible after birth and lost a lot of blood. It definitely affected me and I do now have a fear of birth that I never had before. Even though it was a long time ago, I can still remember it like it was yesterday. Unfortunately that event has overshadowed my memory of my daughter being born