Caesarean Birth

You came into this world — but not through the door that was intended for it. You were not pressed, squeezed, guided through the narrowness. You were lifted out. From the silence of the womb directly into the light, without the transition that for millions of years was the first contact between a human being and the world.

Medicine calls it sectio caesarea, and it saves lives every day. That is beyond question. But beyond the surgical necessity, a question arises that is rarely asked: what does it mean for a person when their very first moment in this world was not an arrival — but a being-taken-out?