Personal birthing experience:
The personal birthing experience that I chose to write about for this assignment is the birth of my first child. Not only was a very young married woman at the age of 18, I was also a military wife. My husband was deployed over seas in my 7th month of my pregnancy. I moved back home with my parents while he was deployed. Our first son was born via a scheduled c-section because he was breach. On the day that I was scheduled to deliver, I recieved news that a helicopter from my husband's ship had crashed killing more then 20 US service men. I entered surgery to deliver our first born, not knowing if my husband was on the helicopter that had crashed. I did not find out that he was safe until more then 24 hours later. In addition to this added stress, the anesthesiologist had given to much numbing medication in my epideral that kept me numb and unable to walk or feel anything from my waist down for 3 days. Although the birth of our first child was a happy experience, it had many factors that contributed to additional stress leading up to and following his birth and although it did have a happy ending, that day could have gone a different direction.
I chose this example for this assignment because of its uniqueness and to show that situations can play a part in attitudes and behaviors that can play a part in life's events that can have an impact on a child's development.
The country that I chose is the Netherlands and although it does not have much to do with my experience, I found it interesting to know that most women here deliver their babies via a midwife and deliveries in hospitals most often do not allow an epidural as a source of pain killer. Therefore, most births occur through natural delivery. Additionally, mothers and their newborns usually do not spend more then a few hours at the hospital after a delivery. The comparison that this would have as it relates to my situation would just be that of what would happen in this situation and the risk to the mother and unborn baby if a complication, such as mine (ie: breach birth) could be extremely dangerous to both mother and child without the ability to foresee possibly birth complications.
8 comments:
Angella,
One of my best friends married a man in the air force. She is due at the beginning of December and he has just been deployed. I can’t even imagine having my first child and the father not being there. I am glad to hear that everything turned out alright, despite all the stressors you had in your life at that time.
Arica
Angella
I am so happy that everything turned out alright for you and your baby. I see that alot of women have had c-sections for one reason or another. I have always wanted to experience natural birth, but have some reservations. Thanks for sharing, looking forward to following your blog.
Angella
I am so happy that everything turned out alright for you and your baby. I see that alot of women have had c-sections for one reason or another. I have always wanted to experience natural birth, but have some reservations. Thanks for sharing, looking forward to following your blog.
Angella,
I am glad to hear that everything worked out for you and that you did have a healthy baby. Because your baby was breech you needed a C-section. Did you choose a V-back with your other children?
During my research I also found that most women do not have their children in a hospital for various reasons, not just that they are poor. Some did not trust hospitals as they were run by their governments!I never really thought about that aspect of childbirth, so I did learn something with this assignment.
I enjoyed reading your blog and look forward to reading more!!
Kari
Wow. I don't know that I would have had the nerve to have another child after that experience. I am glad everyone turned out O.K.
-Whitney
Hello Angella,
Thank you for sharing your story on when you gave birth to your son. I was just reading blogs of positive and almost painless labor stories. You reminded me that life can be hard even through a wonderful event as a new baby coming into the world is. I wonder why most hospitals don’t allow an epidural as a source of pain reducer in the Netherlands? I guess culture can play a very strong role in the lives of these women and babies. They remind me of the women where my father is from. They are with no use of professional medical staff to assist them or any use of pain reducers. They show strong wills to pull forward, aside from the frightening idea that if there is a problem, they are on their own.
I hope that your family was a support system for you during this time. My daughter just married a man in the Army. Luckly Carson was born before he was sent to basic. that doesnt mean that she may not face the same situation in the future.
Hi Angella,
I was a young mother as well during my first nirth experience. i am glad everything turned out ok. Look forward to reading more of your blogs.
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