My Childbirth Experience and Births Around the World

For this assignment, I chose to speak on the birth of my oldest child. He is my oldest out of the two of my children and will be celebrating his second birthday on the 28^th of this month. I chose him because his birth was my first experience and I didn’t know what to expect. I remember how nervous I was when being admitted in the hospital because all I could think about was that I was about to become someone’s mother and was just hoping that I would do my best at being the best mother possible.

My labor was induced because I was about 3 days overdue having a lot of contractions but wasn’t dilating that much. First, they inserted a strip with medication called Cervidil. This is something that is inserted into your cervix to help soften it and prepare it for child birth. I was still experiencing contractions but they were now sometimes lasting for 3 to5 minutes at a time but I was too stubborn to get an epidural until my mother mainly forced me into getting one because she hated seeing me in pain.

I had to turn and lay on my left and right side all through the night until the baby started to get upset about me laying on my right so the nurses decided for me to lay only on my left. Once I was given Pitocin, a medicine that helps you to dilate, he got upset because he didn’t like the medicine so they stopped it. After a couple of hours he was in distress and had his first meconium inside of me so the doctor decided to do an emergency C-section because the meconium could have become poisonous to the baby.

 When having a C-section only one person is allowed in the operating room so we chose my children’s father. He was so slow and kept procrastinating when putting on the operating clothes until he finally admitted that he was too afraid and nervous to see the minor operation so he decided to let my mother go in his place. She was very supportive, comforted me, and kept me calm the entire time. Once they were pulling him out of my womb, he still wasn’t ready to come so he held on pulling to stay in while they were pulling to get him out. After a few minutes I was blessed with an 8lb 9oz beautiful, serious, and very hungry baby boy.

This was one of the most amazing experiences that I have had in my life and I was able to experience it again a year later with my baby girl. My pregnancy had an impact on his child development because we are both stubborn. I was stubborn during my pregnancy because I never wanted to go to the hospital when experiencing pains and when it came to being injected because I am very nervous when it comes to needles and he was so stubborn during the birthing process and still is to this very day.

“Most nations have fewer cesareans then the United States, but some-----especially in Latin America----- have more. In every nation, both the safety and the incidence of cesareans have increased over the past two decades, with the most dramatic increases in China.” (Berger 2012). According to the article: Why Does China Have the Highest C-Section Rate, Mara Hvistendahl stated that most women in China choose to have cesareans because they are able to pick their due dates, they are afraid that vaginal births will have an influence on their sex life, or just the simple fact that everyone else is having surgery.

C-sections get more complicated the more you get. My first seem as though it was quicker than the second and I healed faster with less pain. My doctor informed me that with each C-section they tug more and it is not as easy as they previous when taking the baby out, I’m guessing from getting cut in the exact same spot. It was so true because I was in so much pain that had had to take pain meds every 6 hours. This is not something that women in China have to worry about because of the one-child law. “Ultimately, the one-child policy’s most significant contribution to China’s high C-section rate may lie in having erased any fear of the complications cesareans create for later deliveries. After all, the cesarean’s most significant risks to the mother—like a ruptured uterus or hemorrhaging caused by abnormalities in the placenta—only arise with later births.” (Hvisrendahl  2012).

References

Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6^th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Hvistendah, M. (2013) January 3. Why does china have the highest C-section rate? Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/01/cesarean_nation_why_do_nearly_half_of_chinese_women_deliver_babies_via_c_section_.single.html