MiniCooper :: My Aunt's birth of her first born
My Aunt Theresa had her first of three boys at Allegheny Valley Hospital in Natrona Heights (near Pittsburgh) when she was 18 years old. She never even heard of someone giving birth at home at the time and the closest thing to a birth center was birthing rooms within hospitals.
Her experience was not the “normal” birth by any means. During her 26th week of pregnancy, she woke up with cramps which only got worse as the day continued. After her spotting turned into hemorrhaging, her mother took her to the emergency room (her husband was at work). There, the doctors told her she was in full labor. Even though she was only 18, she knew that 26 weeks was way too early to have the baby. When asked if she felt she had control over the experience her answer was no. This she explained was only partially because of her age and was mostly because it was too early in the pregnancy to have the child.
The nurses and doctors immediately got her prepped in a full birthing unit. They had a heart monitor for the baby and gave her something to try and stop the delivery. She was of course asked first and fully agreed. From the rooms next to hers, she could hear other woman screaming in paid and got really scared. They were not able to stop the labor though and she had her son, Jon, in an operating room at four the next morning. Did it hurt? Heck yes – even at only two pounds, it hurt.
Jon was immediately taken away from her, and she was cleaned up and taken back to her room. Later that day, Jon was brought back in an incubator for a quick hello and good bye before he was flown in a helicopter to a bigger hospital where he spent the next four months. She spent the first four months of her son’s life wondering if he was going to make it or not until the day when she could finally bring him home.
So how does she feel about this amazing experience? In her case there was a lot of medical attention and technology involved. Looking back on the experience, she is very happy that she was so young and naïve because she wasn’t as worried or scared as she possibly should have been. She is a total believer in the technologies and medical aspect of giving birth. The technology at the time (1982) was the only thing that saved her son. All the incubators and special lamps helped him to grow and survive outside of her body. Jon is 24 years old now and a “major pain in the a**” but of course she would not be able to say that if it weren’t for those doctors and nurses. They explained everything to her and she did have a say in what they did and did not do.
Her first two sons were completely natural (besides what happened to Jon afterwards). Her third son she had “planned”. She went in for a check up and the doctor told her she could have the baby right then. She didn’t want to because she was alone so they made an appointment for the next day. Aunt Theresa took the medicine that sped along the labor, the epidural, and shortly had a third healthy baby boy. Those births she felt she had complete control over. She was more educated but that did not even matter since all the nurses and doctors explained everything that they did, before they did it. At any time she felt she could have stepped in if she did not like how things were going.
When asked about births become more medical related, she believes it is because people feel safer and secure in a hospital. There aren’t really any other choices in the area were we live. The closest Midwife Center to where I live is in the city of Pittsburgh – an hour drive. While, Aunt Theresa does agree that they have been pushing woman “out the door” too soon after labor, overall having your child in the hospital may prove to be very beneficial if something should ever go wrong during labor.