Jessica Simpson: c-section to avoid pain?

Singer Jessica Simpson and her fiance Eric Johnson are expecting their first baby any day now. But although Simpson booked a luxury birth suite at Los Angeles Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and tried hypnotherapy to prepare her for childbirth and to ease her fears, she is now allegedly thinking about having a c-section to avoid the pain of labor.

Apparently someone who reported to be close to her (who obviously doesn't want to reveal their identity) said Jessica was really scared of giving birth. The source said: "The thought of going into labor scared the bejeezus out of her. She was so anxious, she was even breaking into cold sweats at night. Jessica has no tolerance for pain. She even turned to hypnotherapy to calm her fears about it, but nothing was working. She desperately wanted to experience the joy of a natural birth, but decided to go with what made the most sense for her."

I won't even comment on the tackiness of talking to the press about these things, or about how reliable the anonymous source is. What I am interested in is the idea itself, that a cesarean section is more appealing than natural childbirth, so that the mother can "avoid pain". This concept is nothing new, but it is a weird human quirk. It's well known that c-sections which are major abdominal surgery result in a longer postpartum recovery period. Ironically, c-sections are actually associated with a lot more pain. Yet, some mothers choose c-sections because they are scared of natural birth. Maybe that is because people are scared of the unknown?

One study revealed that people are much more likely to be afraid of sharks than many dangers that are much closer to home, and much more likely to hit them. And labor, like sharks, pops up with no notice and can't be fought against. Scheduled cesarean sections may result in tons of pain, but at least they are predictable!