The Story Of My Moms Premature Birth Experience At The Hospital.
In this unit:
When one finds themselves thinking about birth the immediate image that kicks in is a happy couple, a pregnant woman, a hospital, pain, screaming, and final satisfaction. As alot of women say," it was all worth it at the end". In this unit we spoke alot about birth, as well as we had professionals come in, read a book, and watched a film. In my point of view this was the most intriguing unit especially because my mom is pregnant at this moment. I spoke to my mom about her options during birth and shared my knowledge. After conversing with her she told me she wanted to give birth at the hospital. I tried talking her out of it and talking her into getting a midwife but as much as i tried i couldn't convince her. I told her that the doctors at the hospital don't really care about what's best for her and the child but about what is more convinient for them. She answered that i was wrong because after my sisters birth and mine she was satisfied. According to her she felt comfortable and there was no intervention.
Lies, In My Presence!
My mom says she wants to give birth to my baby brother in the hospital but but but but i don't get it! When i was 9 i was around to witness when my mom gave birth to my second sister. It all started on a very quiet monday morning on June 3 my mom was only 6 months . She started getting contractions and we thought it was normal until they started to get worse. My dad got scared so he took her to the hospital. when we got there they told us that the baby was ready to come out. He told us that the baby was going to be premature, but since it would be premature we didn't know how the situation would turn out. In order to make it a bit safer the doctor told us that my mom had to stay for a week until saturday or possibly sunday so she could complete her 7 months there. She was very dissapointed but agreed to for the well being of my sister. I made sure that i vissited her at the hospital everyday. She looked sad, tired, pale and told me that the food was disgusting and that the nurse wouldnt come around alot to check on her. The nurse wasn't very friendly, on the contrary she had a really bad attitude. Around friday night the contractions started getting worse and they continued all day staturday. Finally me and my dad knew the baby was coming around 10pm. We went to look for the doctor because my mom felt her coming out. Now this is where it get interseting!!!!!! It turns out the doctor wasn't even there yet! We started going crazy because the baby was more than ready to pop out. When the nurse came to check on my mom after her poor job, she asked my mom to spread her legs to see how it was. My baby sisters head was starting to pop out. At this point my mom could't hold her in no more and started pushing. The nurse got so mad! She said," the doctor isn't here yet so you can't have your baby yet". She had the nerve to go down there and try pushing my baby sisters head back in!!!!!!!!! I know my mom was in so much pain because my dad and i were there. Then she wouldn't stop trying to push her back in so my dad jumped in and told her to stop. She tried causing a scene and started getting feisty so my dad put her in her place. My moms contractions got worse so she didnt care and started pushing. She basically had the baby on her own. The doctor got there late and was there to receive the baby but it was almost completely out. She was born on sunday at 12 am on june 8.When my sister came out she was only 3lbs. Her body wasn't fully developed and she couldnt really breathe properly. The doctor put her in the incubador for a month and we got her on July 4th. When we picked her up she was so cute and tiny. The first couple of months she used to cry soooo much because she would get stomach pains due to the milk. Afterwards she was fine and we all loved carrying her so much that we wouldn't like to share. I asked my mom on what it was like to be away from my sister for a month. My mom had to come visit her to feed her but it didn't feel right to her. She mentioned that she felt distant as if there weren't really a connection there. Normally a mother gets to have her child but being a month in distance made her very upset.
My Stance For Future Birth:
Witnessing my moms terrible experience was not nice at all. Now that i have more knowledge on birth and the options i have i know for a fact i don't want to give birth in a hospital. The hospital is not the place for me. Doctors do what is most convinient for them and not for the mother nor baby. If the birth doesn't happen when they want it to happen then they force it with petocin and epidurals, " and if your uncomfortable we'll give you more!" (movie) A women expects a certain birth and receives another. Besides patocin and epidurals harm the baby. When a woman lays down the doctor is in power because its a convinient position for him, a better position is a squat. Wathcing "The Business of Being Born" was great because now i know midwives are a great to give birth too. The day i give birth it will be at a birth center but with the help of a midwive and her "tool", a doula.
NO HOSPITALS FOR ME!!!!
Hospital births are horrible and not what your ideal birth is going to be.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your project I valued how personal you got. It made the story interesting and you were very engaging and comical. Just like you I do not plan on having a hospital birth because the nurses and doctors seem too busy and pissed off (based off of what I've researched and learned.) Your story good have been stronger if you spoke deeper about how the nurses treated your mother and what happened once the doctor got to the your mother. I enjoyed your project great job.
Ariel, you shared you and your families intimate story about the birth of your premature sister and the hardships that came with her birth. you then reflected based on what you have learned summarizing that you would not like to have a baby in a hospital but in a birthing center. I completley agree girl !
ReplyDeleteWhat I valued about your post was how you were able to learn from your mothers decisions and hopefully imrpove the outcome for yourself. I also really valued that you wrote a narrative I think it changes from an essay and shows the true emotional side of birth, you make that clear expecially with the discription of your mothers hospital stay.
Your project matters to me because I think it is proof of another women empowering herself, it also shows a deep love between you and your family which i think is very important.
I really enjoyed your narritive, I would just suggest proof reading it before posting !
Great job !
Your piece revolved around the birth of your sister and your experience watching your mother receive less than adequate care. You then connected this to your own future and how you might have gone about the situation.
ReplyDeleteI valued how personal you were able to get with this post. It was nice to hear a first hand account of what went on, from someone other than the mother's perspective.
I think this is significant because it really illustrates how a hospital works with the convenience of the doctor in mind. The fact that the nurse would even attempt to push the baby back into the mother is horrifying.
Next time I might put even a little more of your own analysis, but otherwise I really enjoyed it.
I can't believe your mother I had to go through all of that. I 100% agree with you when you say, Doctors don't really care about there patients and do what is most convenient for them.
ReplyDeleteWhat i valued about this post was how you gained insight from both your mothers past birth experiences as well as the movie to come to a conclusion of how you want to have a birth when the time comes.
The only thing i would do is, i would add more try to connect this experience to other peoples experiences taht you looked up. But Besides that this is really good paper and i enjoyed reading this.
i read your paper, and i thought that it was very good. it talked about how one of your little sisters were born, and the struggles that your mother went through to deliver her. it must have been really hard for her and your dad to be under that kind of pressure. but now she is a healthy girl and that is a blessing. i liked how you connected what we learned in class to a personal experience as well as talk about a side of birth we didnt really cover much on. we didnt really talk much about premature births and the complications it brings. maybe for next time, you could probably add some statistics about premature births around the U.S. and how common or uncommon they are
ReplyDeleteIn a subtle way you seem to focus on the differences between how midwives care for their patients and how doctors/hospitals care for their patients. The narrative you wrote about your mother was moving, it showed how birth and how birth is treated affects not only the mother and child but also the family.
ReplyDeletei really valued that you wrote your mothers from an active point of view. for instance you added dialogue that i can imagine you would have used while you were at the hospital with your family.
i think this post would have been even more powerful if you had shared your mothers story and then revealed that despite her horrible experience she still wanted to have her next child in a hospital.
i enjoyed reading your post very much- amanda