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| Thursday March 1, 2007 |
It was a Thursday morning and I was 38 weeks pregnant. My husband and I were headed to Macon, Georgia to have a baby. This was the day I was going to have my baby girl!! I couldn't be more excited---finally no more morning sickness!!! I check in to the hospital around 11:00 AM. I'm put on pitocin to speed along my contractions--it works. The pain is awful; an epidural is ordered and inserted without any protest. Later that evening, horrible storms threaten the city. I am deep in to my labor and do not realize nor care that a tornado has touched down near downtown Macon. As I am pushing, my doctor mentions that lung development may be an issue since I'm delivering early. My stubborn girl isn't budging so a vacuum is used to speed along the process. Finally around 7:35 PM my beautiful 7 pound 5 ounce girl is born. My husband and I are so excited!! We have waited 9 long months to meet her!! She starts to cry but it sounds more like a grunt. The hospital staff decides they want to keep her in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) over night for observations; they are concerned with her lung development. I'm sad but exhausted. I believe one night away will be okay--tomorrow she will be with me and soon we will go home. The next morning my doctor comes in the room and says my baby girl has to remain in NICU. It seems my sweet girl was born with a fever and they need to monitor her and make sure she does not have an infection. She is breathing fine--in fact she pulled the oxygen out of her nose. Okay, I say, if that's what is best--how long will she stay? Until her blood work comes back and shows no infection, is my answer. So everyday my husband and I go in the NICU and stay with our girl until night time. We can't wait until she is given the okay to go home. We never put her down; leaving her at night is horrible. Finally on Monday March 5, 2007 our daughter is able to go home. She didn't have an infection, her lungs were fully developed and she is a healthy, perfect, beautiful baby.
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| My beautiful baby girl in the NICU |
Those five days in NICU were very trying for us, but everything turned out to be okay in the end. I love to share my birthing experience so new mom's/dad's understand that anything can happen. No matter how healthy you are, how prepared you think you are---expect the unexpected! Now she is an intelligent four year old in Pre-K. Talking with her, you would never know she had a rough start. She developed normally, all milestones on time, her tough beginning having no negative impact on her development. She's my fighter and I adore her!!!
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| First day of school. August 15, 2011 |
Then there are the stories of mothers to be from Africa. If I thought my childbirth experience was traumatic, think of what women go through around the world. Due to a lack in transportation, many African mothers deliver at home. This method of delivery is unsafe and Africa has a high mortality rate for mothers and their babies. Women in Africa deliver to midwives, but sadly there are not enough trained midwives so instead of delivering to trained professionals, women are delivering at home. One study shows that 900 out of 100,000 women die in Liberia, due to pregnancy complications (Voice of America, 2011). After reading this article, I realize that though my childbirth experience wasn't what I had planned, I am very lucky to have such great medical care, to deliver my baby in a hospital and to have my baby girl thriving, laughing and living.
Reference:
Voice of America. (2011). Pregnant Women in Africa. Retrieved September 6, 2011, from http://www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2008-05-30-voa35-66648027.html
5 comments:
Hi Rebekah, I loved your story! My daughter was also born on March 1st. Although it was 1984. When my grand daughter was born in 2005 she had to be in the NICU for 5 days. It was so scary, but I felt so fortunate because she was there as a precaution to make sure she did not have an infection. There were other babies there that were do small and we had to be so quiet in the NICu because the smallest startle could be detrimental to these tiny lil guys fighting for life. Congratualtions on your healthy baby girl!
Rebekah, what an amazizng story. I m glad your daughter turned out healthy. It takes a strong parent to be able to see their chiled in the condition your baby was in. I commend you and your husband. You nver know how strong you are until you are face with something.
Rebecca-
Reading your birth story reminded me of the birth of my son. He had to be in the NICU for a week. That was a trying time for my husband and I. Thanks God we made it through!!
Janille
Hi Rebekah -Jordann here from the course, I really enjoyed reading your personal story. I really must say as a man we can miss out on things such as giving birth. I can only imagine how it changes your life great blogg look forward to learning more from you.
I too found it interesting to see the high mortality rate of mothers during birth. There must be other ways to train midwives to deliver.
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