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Mother-of-two Natasha Pearlman was left "traumatised" by the birth of her first child, after being "pushed to the limit" in labour.

The former Grazia editor, who had daughter Rose in 2014, has previously spoken of how she felt she was "failed" after the birth, and struggled with pain for months afterwards.

Earlier this week, Catriona Jones, from the University of Hull, warned that horror stories such as Ms Pearlman's were leading to a rise in the number of requests for c-sections.

Writing for Sky News, Ms Pearlman says more women must speak about their experiences.

Just imagine that the most painful thing you could possibly experience was about to happen to you. On top of that, there was a high chance you wouldn't be able to get any pain relief for it - and also that you could be facing a number of complications during the process or afterwards.

Then imagine that not only did no one tell you about any of this, but the majority of the information given to you about it was that it would be wonderful. And that you could distract yourself from the pain with breathing and/or a machine that essentially gives you mini electric shocks.

You would, understandably, when the pain hit or it all went wrong, be traumatised. And there is a high chance you might not want to go through it again - or not without proper pain relief or medical supervision.

You would also, most likely, be outraged that no one had told you the truth from the start.

This is why I am fundamentally opposed to the views of academic Catriona Jones, from the University of Hull, who claimed that pregnant women are traumatised by "horror stories" about birth.

She said she was tasked to investigate the phenomenon of tocophobia (the fear of childbirth) after NHS perinatal mental health services became concerned about the number of healthy women asking for a caesarean because of a fear of natural birth.

She went on to describe the women sharing their stories on forums like Mumsnet as "terrible, a bloodbath".

Telling women that childbirth is great, or shielding them from information about what could actually happen, is much more harmful than a few slightly gory truths.

Because whatever your fears may be before childbirth, the trauma of experiencing a bad birth with no preparation beforehand is much more damaging - for a much longer period of time.

I know this, not just because it happened to me, but because when I first wrote about it, thousands of women shared their heartbreaking stories with me straight after it. They had been so ill-prepared, so ill-informed that the memories of the pain and experience never left them.

Many chose never to have another child, or suffered lifelong pain or organ prolapses and incontinence that were never able to be rectified.

It is our duty to inform women - and their partners - about everything that could happen in birth. It's not a horror story when it is medical information.

It has become a "blood bath" for women because we all feel that not being educated about childbirth has wounded us.

Take that away and you finally have childbirth information that helps us, not hinders.