Viral posts about different forms of “shaming” are running the internet right now, with some of them mobilizing entire movements. With that comes the good, the bad, and the very ugly.

One young lady’s post about her experience with a birth photographer sparked a social media storm and a discussion about birthing methods. Screenshots of an alleged text message conversation between a mother-to-be and the photographer were originally posted to Sanctimommy’s Facebook page.

The backstory: a woman attempted to schedule a session with the photographer but once it was revealed that she was having a c-section, the photog bared her opinionated claws. She was not interested in taking the photos. Oh, and this person also considers cesarean births to be unreal.

Here’s an excerpt of what was shared:

“A surgery isn’t birth, my dear. You are having a surgery to remove your baby from your abdomen. That is not birth no matter how you swing it and I for one don’t want to be there to take pictures of it.”

“The motherhood job is hard, if I were you I would think twice about starting such a job by cutting corners so early in the game.”

Needless to say, people were enraged by the photographer’s comments and had a Facebook field day. Some of the comments read:

“This photographer would need surgery to remove my foot from their a**.”

“I think we’ve finally discovered where the voter fraud accusations are coming from. . .a good chunk of us aren’t even actually born but registered to vote. I feel so enlightened.

“So c-section babies don’t have birthdays then I guess, since they are never born.”

“I’d hate to know what the photographer would say if she’d been hired to photograph the conception, and found out the mom had taken the easy way out with IVF. Cutting corners!”

Lucky for the photographer that she escaped the wrath of the internet for her supposed comments on childbirth. The original poster did not want to out either of their identities (though she was identified later) to avoid the harassment that comes along with this sort of controversial topic.

The mom-to-be at the center of the post is believed to be a woman from Oregon who has since shut down her social media pages. Some have questioned if the text exchange really occurred based on her wanting to keep the photographer’s information a secret, and her history of viral posts.

Whether the situation really happened or not, it stirred up mom debates over shaming and what types of birthing options are better than others. That is a real issue. There are women fielding judgmental questions, trolls, and snarky opinions about their birthing choices.

C-sections, natural vaginal births, or home births. Who knew how a baby gets delivered was so important to everyone who’s not even having the child? And then there’s the stay-at-home versus daycare arguments and the ongoing breastfeeding versus formula saga. Sigh. Parenting superiority wars suck.

C-sections are sometimes medically necessary for the health of mom and baby. The only people who need to justify the reason for the procedure are the doctors. Other than that, it’s nobody’s business. Having a baby and motherhood are work, but how a woman chooses to deliver her baby shouldn’t be up for bashing or ridicule.

What do you think of this story? Have you ever experienced a legit form of birth shaming or mom shaming?