Do you ever find yourself about to drift asleep when, out of nowhere you think "Hey, remember that time you said something really stupid 10 years ago? Wasn't that stupid?" Then you literally can't go to sleep because you're filled with second-hand embarrassment for your past self and anxiety that nothing you can do now can ever atone for it. Does that happen to you? Yeah, me neither. (Except yes, totally.) Many of the subjects I've been really stupid about over the years have been related to birth and child-rearing. Stupid things I said about having a c-section have been corrected, bit by bit, over the years through reading and actually talking to women who have had them. Those stupid things I used to tout became cosmically funny (and cringe-worthy) particularly after I had one when my son was born.
It's not that I ever had a venomously negative view of c-sections. I was born via c-section, as were most of my siblings. I didn't think people who had c-sections were monstrous harpies who "didn't really give birth." I just had very particular ideas about when a c-section was required, what it meant, and how one should react to having had one. In short, I was inserting my uneducated, biased opinion on women and their personal and medical choices... kind of like a Conservative lawmaker.
I would like to share with you the stupid things I said about c-sections (that have been proven ridiculous with research and personal experience) in the hopes that you can either laugh ruefully along with me for having done the same, take this as an symbolic apology, or learn a thing or two yourself.