Project Six

For information on a birth story I contacted my mom since she had some experience having 2 boys. We are from the State College area so my older brother and I were both born here at formerly known Centre Community Hospital. We were both born by Dr. Klingler, a well known doctor in the State College area. For my brothers’ birth, the labor lasted about 20 hours. My mom said she recalled a feeling of “Is this ever going to be over?” She felt like she had more control over that birth because she did not ask for any drugs (Oytocin, Demerol) to push the labor along because she knew about the problems that could occur if she did so. My mom grew up taking Human Health and Development classes in college so she was very familiar with the troubles in the 60’s and 70’s that women were having if they requested natural childbirth. I also asked her about her mom’s experiences with childbirth and she said that back whenever she was having kids, at home labor was more common because of the lack of medicine and technology. There wasn’t any use of midwifes, and children were often lost because of problems before and during birth. My grandmother lost one child because of these complications. As far as my birth, she said that she felt like the doctors had more control during the labor than my brothers. After my mother had her first contractions, I was born only 9 hours later. She said this was because she decided to use a drug to help with the pain, enabling her to push more and do more of what the doctor wanted. She said it was much easier and a much shorter labor than the first. These days she feels good about both births because she said she had 2 completely different experiences, both which turned out good. I then asked her why she thought that birth was medicalized in our country compared to Japan who has the lowest child birth mortality rate. She said exactly the right thing, the media. She went on by saying that we believe everything else in the media, why not the questions about child birth? The media is such a strong business and it has so much control over our society. With shows like ER, H.O.U.S.E., and Grey’s Anatomy we see labor on television as a painful, and something that we would not want to go through. We then see the doctors giving these women drugs to induce labor and reduce pain, no wonder 99 percent of births are done at hospitals.

I have a nine-year-old son and this is my birth story. I had just turned 20 years old before giving birth to my first child. The pregnancy went well, but due to a previous miscarriage and having endometriosis, my pregnancy was considered “high risk”. My due date was July 29, 96 (ironically, the same day as me & my husband’s first wedding anniversary). The due date came and went, noting was happening. Finally, on August 3rd at 7pm while I was walking through Rite-aide, I had my first contraction.

I gave birth to my daughter in February of 2005. She was two weeks over due (according to the ob/gyn’s calculations, not mine) and after being emitted into the hospital Tuesday morning of both weeks and undergoing application of some gel to help soften my cervix and lying hooked up to a monitor for 3 hours I was schedule to be induced Wed. Feb. 2. Even though the ultrasound showed no harm to my baby and I still had adequate fluid. I was completely terrified, but how do you tell the doctor no. So I went home that afternoon (Feb. 1) dreading the next day and very shortly went into labor. I did not trust myself to know that I was in labor because my doctor had told me repeatedly that the gel caused cramps and I would think I was I labor, but I would not be and that I should not go to the hospital! Well, I paced around my house for about 5 and ½ hours before my fiancé concluded that me repeating the phrase “I feel like I have to push” meant we better get moving. After a ten minute ride to the hospital my sister met us in the parking lot and I was wheeled to my room (I was only allowed two people in the room with me). By this time anyone with the gift of sight could tell that I was indeed in labor. I was examined and the nurse said I was fully dilated. When my doctor arrive (he was out for dinner) they hustled him in the room and my daughter was born about 4 pushes later. My labor lasted only 6 hours!!! My mother was out in the hallway, but the doctor would not allow her in until he had finished stitching me up. I got to spend a lot of time with my daughter and breastfed her right away. I was able to deliver my daughter without any medication or even an episiotomy, although my doctor did say that if he had more time he would have preformed one.

When my mother was pregnant with my little sister, Michelle, she was placed on semi-bed rest, as it was a high risk pregnancy. She had what is called placenta previa, which means that the placenta was in a position in the lower segment of the uterus, obstructing the internal opening of the cervix. This is a serious problem because the condition may cause maternal hemorrhaging prior to or during labor, as well as possibly incurring premature labor. Throughout her pregnancy, my mother worried over losing my youngest sister while struggling against the lack of control she had in taking care of me, six, and my other sister, two. She was unable to stand up for most of the day because if she did the baby would have kicked the placenta and sent her into labor early, delivering prematurely. As it happened, my sister did kick the placenta causing my mother to go into labor three weeks early as well as creating a semi-emergency. When my sister was delivered it was by cesarean section, but my mother had anticipated this during her pregnancy, as any case of placenta previa needs to be delivered by cesarean section for fear of risking the baby and the mother’s life by attempting a vaginal birth. My mother’s experience of the cesarean section was that it was incredibly nerve wracking and dangerous, many specialists were involved as it was a high risk birth. While the surgery was more dangerous for my mother than for my sister, my mother says that it was well worth the danger as otherwise she would have more than likely lost my sister. However, she says that recovering from the cesarean section, as opposed to the vaginal births of my other sister and myself, was much more difficult as it was surgery. She had to wait longer before she had healed enough to begin her daily routines again, and to be able to hold the new baby as well as me and my other sister. Looking back, she says that both the pregnancy and the cesarean section were worth it, as she was already high risk, the surgery only helped to ensure the health of her and her baby, rather than risk it.