Charlotte Crosby has hit back at trolls who have shamed her for deciding to have a c-section ahead of the birth of her first child.
The Geordie Shore star, 32, had previously said that she was likely opting for a c-section after going through a traumatic ectopic pregnancy back in 2016.
This caused her to develop a fear of a natural birth, something that she recently opened up about on the Always On podcast.
After she initially announced her plans to have a c-section, online trolls left comments including: "I'm so sorry but c section should be for emergency only. Get a grip [sic]."
Another remarked: "Poor thing! Your body is designed to birth babies… not be cut open."
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Charlotte, however, revealed that she met a couple on her South African 'babymoon' who told her the majority of babies there are delivered via a c-section.
She recalled telling the woman: "In England if you were to openly get a c-section, there's just so much stigma around it, and it's like, it's really quite frowned upon which I think is like so… I'm sat here thinking like, 'Maybe I just go for a natural labour because then I can say I've done it and everyone can be dead proud of us.'
"It’s like, ‘Right, hold on – that is not the mentality that you should have when giving birth. I'm gonna have a natural labour so that everyone around us approves.'
"No. I need to get that out of my head."
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The woman then told her that she had all of her children via a c-section.
"In South Africa, natural labour is really dangerous and there's so many complications that everyone opts to have the c-section because it’s the safest way to bring a child into the earth," Charlotte explained.
"They don’t really offer caesareans on the NHS, you've got to be really forceful if you want one and even then it's not like really accepted."
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She then opened up about her fear of complications during labour because of her ectopic pregnancy.
"Now, with having an ectopic pregnancy and going through such a traumatic pregnancy involved thing, I feel like I've got even more scared of complications and things that could go wrong and as well, I don't know one person who had a really good birth story to tell."
The reality star, who also won the 12th series of Big Brother, said that her friend Marnie Simpson's experience also put her off having a natural birth.
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"I speak to Marnie from Geordie Shore about this all the time because she had a natural birth and she had a very, very, very bad experience.
"She had a bladder condition that was worsened and it destroyed her life for like a good couple of years after having her first baby.
"It ruined her time that she could’ve had with her baby because she was so poorly.
"And she had a c-section with her second child and she said the experience in comparison was just like second to none."
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However, despite favouring a c-section, Charlotte said she is still undecided about what to do and, at the time of the interview, admitted that she doesn't have a final birth plan.
"It's really strange that I’m even in this torn mindset, because I’m not a person who really cares what anyone says, but there's something about this that’s bugging us," she said. "It's really bugging us."
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Emma Guinness