My Personal Childbirth Story
This week’s blog assignment allows us the opportunity to
share a personal birth experience. In
particular, I would like to share about the birth experience of my first grand
baby. This was a life changing event
that has changed the way I view and appreciate and value child birth.
On November 18, 2011, my first grand daughter was to be born
to my oldest daughter, Corinne. On the
morning of, my daughter was scheduled to see her OB/GYN doctor to see if she
had dilated any. Come to find out that she was having mild contractions and was
actually almost a week or so overdue. Her doctor had already scheduled her for
an upcoming C-section which was planned for the upcoming Monday. On this particular morning, after being seen
by the physician it was decided that she would be kept in the hospital and
monitored. Her blood pressure was high
and her legs were actually swollen. The
doctor decided that they would help her delivery along and decided to induce
her labor. This went on for the most part of the day. I arrived at the hospital
around 4’oclock that afternoon and was excited about the coming of my
grandbaby. During this time, my
daughter’s contractions were coming and my daughter was in and out of
sleep. However, the baby’s heart rate
began to fade in and out and the nurse said it was due to the contractions and
that they would lay my daughter on her other side to reposition the baby. My motherly instincts kicked in and things
did not feel or seem right after a while.
This birth took forever and took a turn for the worst. The doctor finally came to do her examination
of my daughter’s cervix and decided that it was now time for her to deliver
after many hours had gone by. By this time my daughter had become exhausted and
had already dilated to 10 cm. During her
delivery the baby had a hard time coming through the birth canal. My daughter
kept pushing and pushing but the baby would not come. The doctor finally realized
that my grandbaby was under distress and the baby experienced a teratogen which
caused a condition called bradycardia. As a result, anoxia took place causing
for my grandbaby to experience a traumatic birth experience. She was life-flighted to Vanderbilt Children’s
hospital where she spent the next 5 weeks in the neo-natal unit . The doctor
had to do a procedure called cooling of the brain. Her brain had become swollen
due to the loss of oxygen. Unfortunately, because of this experience and
the doctor’s negligence my grand baby has cerebral palsy and other serious health
issues. In spite of this family mishap,
my Khloe is a beautiful gift from God. She has been and still brings our family
joy and appreciation for life. This is why my passion for special need children
is in my heart.
I chose to share this particular birth experience with my
colleagues because this was a birth experience that I will always cherish and
remember. Child birth is a beautiful and
important aspect of child development from the prenatal stages through delivery
and beyond to the growing stages of a child. Whether we realize it or not, when
a woman carries and delivers a child they are at risk for complications.
Although millions of babies are born healthy everyday there is always that
fifty-fifty chance of child birth going wrong because of a teratogen. After reading Berger’s examples and reading her
share information on child development it has helped me to put things in
perspective.
International Birth
Experience (Germany)
On another note, we were asked to write about a region of
the world other than the U.S. and describe their birth experience. I actually chose to read about and share about
the birth experience of German culture. I chose Germany because I actually
lived there for quite a few years and had my first child back in 1988 in Fulda,
Germany at the Krakenhaus which is the German word for hospital. Some of the things that I have learned and
can recall is that after the birth of having a baby naturally, the hospital
stay is 5 to 7 days. If a patient had a baby by C-section the stay is 7 to 12
days depending upon the recovery. My
hospital stay was actually 5 days and if it had not been for my mother visiting
my stay would have been much longer. There were no private rooms as there was at
least three people in a room, if not more.
Depending upon the physician you choose, if they have a private practice
or work in the hospital, patients have a mid-wife that delivers the baby. My
experience was different because I had blood pressure issues; therefore, an
assigned physician delivered my baby. The birth of my baby by C-section was
scary. After my baby was born my daughter was wrapped in some type of aluminum
wrapping to keep her warm. My husband was petrified after the doctor brought
him our daughter like this. Sonograms of the baby are done more frequently in
Germany than that of the U.S. I had
about five of them at the time. All prescribed medicines are prescribed from
the pharmacy/pharmacists. Unlike the U.S., our physicians prescribed our meds. Germans also focus more on holistic and
natural remedies. When I had my baby
years ago this was where I was first introduced to herbal teas. Peppermint tea
and chamomile was given to help with my blood pressure. I actually enjoyed my
birth experience in Germany. They also focused more on natural baby foods for
their children. In the U.S., we are now
seeing the trends that they have been practicing for years. One other thing is that Germans will have no
more than two to three children. This is
the culture that they practice. My
birthing experience had it’s pros and cons. One con was that I was not familiar
with the German language and found that It made me uneasy when I was being
examined by some that did not speak English.
However, my physician spoke English very well but it wasn’t guaranteed
that I would see him. In comparison to
my mentioned birth experience, I found that the doctors were very thorough in
my health. As a precaution, I was always kept in the hospital a few days after
my visit because of my blood pressure.
Had the doctor’s been proactive in my daughter’s birth my grand baby
would not be in the predicament that she is in.
