Allison Williams Fights Back Tears Discussing the Emotional Impact of Her 'Traumatic' C-Section

Girls star Allison Williams welcomed her first child with now-husband, German actor Alexander Dreymon in late 2021 via cesarean section. Whereas some C-section deliveries are planned in advance, Williams’ was not, and now the 37-year-old is opening up about the trauma that’s rarely talked about when it comes to the invasive surgical procedure.

Williams discussed the topic on a recent episode of her “Landlines Podcast” which she hosts with her two “lifelong best friends,” Hope Kremer and Jaymie Oppenheim. Joining the trio was The Vagina Whisperer founder and board-certified physical therapist Sara Reardon, for a conversation on pelvic floor health during pregnancy and postpartum.

In a clip shared to Instagram, Williams noted that even though her C-section was almost four years ago, she still had lots of feelings about it.

“I thought I had thought about [it like], ‘Oh yeah, I might have to have a C-section.’ But I never actually walked myself through the moment where a doctor comes in and says, ‘You’re going to need to have a surgery awake that you didn’t know you were going to have,'” Williams recalled. “No one talked to me about my emotional state, about managing that.”

“My [physical therapist assistant], she got my full medical file from the hospital and read the entire 200 pages of it and like, walked me through what happened,” the M3GAN star continued, becoming visibly emotional. “And it was just a really meaningful experience, because it was all like, you know, hard for me to remember, super traumatic.”

At that point, Williams had to pause while she held back tears, as Reardon jumped in to comfort her.

“Oh, we’re here with you babe. You’re not alone,” Reardon reassured. “You sharing this gives other moms the ability to feel seen because so many people go through that and they don’t unpack it and we hold it with us for a really really really long time.”

A post shared by Allison Williams (@aw)

“No two birth stories are identical,” Williams added in the caption. “It’s wild how many infinite ways this one, shared, foundational experience can play out. Mine was a lot, and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to process it with some wonderful doctors (including my OBGYN) afterwards.”

“But no amount of processing will ever be enough. I had surgery that I didn’t know I was going to have, while I was awake and tied-down to a table,” she continued. “How do we just move on from those things? Can we? Anyway, to all the other C-section people out there: my scar is smiling at yours from across the internet.”

According to the American Medical Association, nearly 1.2 million women deliver by C-section every year, which accounts for about one-third of all pregnancies. In other words, it seems well past time to remove the stigma surrounding C-section deliveries for countless mothers struggling postpartum.