Childbirth Experience

Before I start, I want to say that it wasn't a surprise to me that in the United States almost 100% of births take place in a controlled and/or clinical setting. When I realized that people outside of the United States the majority of births occur at home, that was a little scary to me because of the complications that could occur. I gave birth to my first child about 2 weeks ago so this week's blog will be about me and my baby. In this blog, I will share my thoughts regarding birth, the procedure that I had to go through and the complications that I had and the the differences of labor and delivery in the US and other countries.

First, I would like to share my thoughts on birth. Birthing my child was a real experience that I will always remember. During my first trimester, I got sick everyday. I lost 7 lbs because I wasn't eating a lot. I couldn't deal with smells because they would make me nausea. After that trimester, I was fine up until my 8th month. During my 8th month, I got preeclampsia which put me in the hospital because my blood pressure was elevated, liver enzymes were abnormal and I had severe swelling in my feet and legs. I stayed in the hospital for 16 days until the birth of my baby. On Christmas Day, I was in the hospital but I'm glad they kept me because it snowed and I live about 35 minutes from the hospital so it would've been difficult to travel.

The day of my delivery, I was taken down to labor and delivery and was prepared to deliver. At 12:00 noon, I was given Petocin then at 4:00 pm, my doctor broke my water. I delivered my son at 1:14 am. I was in pain off and on because my epidural wore off. From what I had to go through, I don't want to experience that again. From all of that, my adorable, healthy baby boy came and I wouldn't trade him for anything. My doctor mentioned postpartum to me but here I am going into my second week and I'm doing great.. My son is also doing great.  

  

One of the questions was what do I think of births occuring at home. I don't agree with that because of the complications that could occur. The reason why I chose the hospital that I chose was because if me or my baby had any complications, we would get the care we needed at that location so I took that very serious. .

Another question was to choose a region of the world or a country, other than the U.S., and find out how births happen there. One thing I learned is in Western and other cultures, some families view the placenta as a special part of birth, since it has been the child's life support for so many months. Some parents like to see and touch this organ. The placenta may be eaten by the newborn's family unlike in the US, we don't eat the placenta.

What other stressors that surround birth might influence a child’s development? Taking drugs could influence a child's development in many ways according what the drug is.

What kinds of support and/or intervention surrounding a child’s birth may foster healthy development? Support from the spouse, family members and friends play a big support role. My spouse was very helpful from the beginning to the end and I also had supportive family and friends that were right there.