Why Wednesday...Why Choose a Tubal Ligation?

I have seen wordless Wednesday, but I'd like to do a little something different and have Why Wednesday where I probe a question. This Wednesday's question..."Why choose a tubal ligation?"

WARNING: If you do not have children and are considering it and don't want to hear any "horror stories", don't read any further!

Let me start with a little history. When I gave birth to my daughter the delivery was VERY difficult. My daughter was experiencing fetal distress and so the doctors decided to induce. I went to the hospital and they began "the drip". After some time the doctor came in and "accidently" broke my water. At that point I was telling the nurse to get the anesthesiologist out of bed NOW for my epidural, and because the nurse deals with crazy pregnant ladies all day, she does. Once I got my epidural, I was doing well. Then they said it is time to push, and so I did. Well I was unaware that the nurse kept calling and calling the doctor and she didn't show up until after my daughter had crowned. Well I was tearing terribly and they had to also do an episiotomy in order to get my daughter out. Well with one big push she was out and the cord was around her neck, so they rushed her down to the NICU and my husband went along per my instruction (as he wasn't sure whether to stay with me or go with our daughter). Anyway for the next 20-30 minutes all I heard was sutures, gauze, sutures, gauze, "Come look at this cut..I've never seen one like this before", and "Where is this blood coming from". Needless to say I was getting a bit worried. In the end it turned out along with all the tearing (of which some of the stitches ripped out a few days after I got home) I had also broken my tailbone with delivering my daughter.

Needless to say when I got pregnant with my son, I went to my NEW doctor with this story and convinced her that I needed a C-section, which I got and recovered from so much more quickly than my version of natural childbirth.

Before having my daughter and the time in between having my children, I was on the pill. I have a terrible time on the pill. The hormones affect my thyroid, I am sick all the time, and in general I just feel awful. In addition I have very sensitive skin and so any kind of male contraceptive is a NO GO for me.

So with all of these factors plus the fact that financially 2 children is all we feel we can support and raise properly, my husband and I decided on a tubal ligation. The doctors were able to deliver my son and perform the procedure at the same time, so there was no additional cost or "downtime" for me.

I do not believe that a tubal ligation is for everyone. Do I wish some days that I did not have one? Yes, especially when my best friend told me she was pregnant. I got a pang of sadness knowing that I would not experience that again. However, after that bit of sadness, I felt better because I knew it was the right choice for me and my family.

I guess what I want to leave you with is what my doctor told me when I said I wanted a tubal after my C-section. She said, "If both your children and your husband were killed tomorrow, would you want to start another family someday?" I thought about this and decided that even if that did happen, I would like to adopt children, but there would be no more pregnancies for me.