By Lauren WilliamsA mother of three is facing a barrage of media criticism after she wrote on Facebook about how painful childbirth could be.
The post drew condemnation from people who said it was insensitive and unhelpful.
Now, the mother, who is not being named because she has chosen not to be identified, is seeking help.
“I had to stop because I was so angry,” the mother told ABC News.
“I felt so bad for all the babies.
My heart just sank.
I felt so helpless.
I thought I was the only one who was going through this.
It’s just like every other mother I know, there are moms and dads, too.”
The post sparked outrage among people on social media, who were quick to point out that the woman, who asked not to give her name, is not a doctor.
“Your mother is a doctor, but you’re still just another mom in a uterus.
Your pain isn’t real and the pain you feel is not real,” one person wrote on Twitter.
Another said: “Your mother’s post is so insensitive.
It would be easier to just call your pain ‘pain’ or ‘anxiety,'” according to a video posted on YouTube.
Others called her out for her use of language that could have been interpreted as insensitive to her fellow women in the labor profession.
“You are not a nurse and you are not the mother of a woman.
You are a woman who is dealing with a woman’s pain,” another person wrote.”
It’s not a matter of ‘pain,’ but of emotional anguish,” said Elizabeth G. Davis, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco.”
She’s trying to be sensitive, but she’s not trying to help anyone,” she added.
“This is what we do.”
Davis said she thinks the mother was just trying to get people to help her mom during her painful labor.
“The mother was not trying or trying to do anything to help any other mother,” she said.
“It’s about her mother, her pain.”
But Davis said that sometimes people are not understanding that there is an important difference between the words “pain” and “anxiety.”
“When you’re a mom, you’re trying to make sure you’re safe and your baby’s not hurt,” Davis said.
Davis said that during her own pregnancy, she felt anxiety during the labor process.
“My baby was so strong.
When you’ve been through a lot, you can’t help but feel nervous,” she explained.
Davis, who has a 2-year-old son, said she has also had her fair share of anxiety during labor.
“When I got pregnant with my son, I had panic attacks,” she recalled.
“So I was going to the hospital and I couldn’t get there.
So I thought, ‘My baby’s going to be a lot worse, because they’re going to hurt him,'” Davis said, adding that she ended up in the hospital.
“The doctor said I was really in a panic.”
Davis has also experienced anxiety during childbirth and in her own personal life.
“When I was pregnant with [my son], I would have to have a lot of medication in my body,” she told ABCNews.com.
“That’s why I have to make myself go to the bathroom.”
Davis, however, says she has never experienced anxiety.
“In the past I have never experienced an anxiety attack or panic attack.
That’s why this is so upsetting,” she noted.
Davis has since been in a relationship with a man who has not only been a primary caregiver for her, but also a father to her three children, ages 2, 5 and 9.
“So the only way I could really be able to really understand what I was feeling was to go to him,” she stressed.
Davis is now seeking help from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), which is now accepting women’s stories from across the country.
“We need to help our patients understand what they’re experiencing,” said ACOG spokeswoman Jill B. Smith.
“We want to be sure that they understand that we care about them, we want to help them through it and we want them to know that we’re listening.”
“We want women to feel comfortable coming forward to talk about their experiences and their concerns,” Smith added.
The American College is now working to ensure that women who have experienced birth pain, such as the mother in this case, are treated appropriately and not judged based on the nature of their experiences.”ACOG supports and encourages women who are experiencing childbirth to seek the help of a medical provider if they need it,” Smith said.
“But we don’t support and encourage women to be ashamed of their birth experiences or to use these experiences as an excuse for not seeking help for their birth pain.”