HW 36 - Pregnancy & Birth Stories

First Interview:

I had a pretty much normal pregnancy.I I was alittle scared about my first pregnancy , The whole idea of labor and delivery was all consuming, no one really gave me a clear idea how it felt because no one wanted to scare me, which made me of-course even more scared. When I found out I was pregnant , I was made aware that I was already two months pregnant. The pregnancy as a whole came as a shock my husband wasn't too happy. We weren't planning to have until a few more years. When we went for the ultrasound and found out we were having a girl , all the doubt went straight out the window.

In the months of my pregnancy I had so much labor pain. My doctor kept assuring me that everything was still the same .I was in tears for weeks. I "hated" contractions. On the day of my pregnancy my back hurt so much . I tried everything from laying down to running a warm bath. So me and my husband decided to go the hospital. After waiting for only few minutes they put me in a room , hooked me to and started counting my contraction. They also monitor the baby's heartbeat.

Oddly for me giving birth did not hurt pushing felt somewhat good actually. Nothing hurt anymore not my back, not even my stomach.It was a weird feeling of relieve.I was pushing for about an hour. My baby's head was coming out right so the doctor asked me to stop , he had to suction the baby out. It took about half an hour to get it on right.And my beautiful baby girl was born.

Second Interview:

The day of my pregnancy I had to vist my Ob/Gyn earlier in the day .He informed me that my due date was expected for the following week, I was dilated only one centimeter. As I was watching the news later that night, I felt a pain in my stomach. I got up to use the bathroom,as so as I bent down I felt an incredible pain in my stomach.Then it happened my water broke. Maybe it was the shock or that I felt I peed on myself but I started to laugh

I called my mom from her room , then she called my boyfriend who came to drive us to the hospital.
The check in at the hospital was fast but the upstairs was packed ,maybe their were too many women pregnant.I had to stay overnight in triage.

The next morning, I was able to get a room . I planned on having a natural birth. But my son never pushed down, which led me doctor to suggest a C-section. I was terrified. Lucky my son was born a healthy 6 pounds, 12 ounces .

Questions:

How many women on avg. must have C-sections ?

Are many complications during pregnancy due to how the mother took care of herself during pregnancy ?

How dose the suction extraction of the baby effect its overall growth ?

When women seek medical advise are they given alternatives to common child birth practices ?

Third Interview:

I was hoping my pregnancy with my second child would be easy.And than both the labor and delivery would be smooth.I guess this is what all parents wish for. One week from my due date I woke up having terrible cramps and back pains. I could feel my body trying to go into labor because these were the exact same feelings from my first child. I started having contractions 10 minutes apart. Later my contractions got to be around two minutes apart. My husband rushed home and it took us about a hour to get to the hospital.

During my ride to the hospital my contractions slowed down to become about five minutes apart.When we got to the hospital they were right back to being 10 minutes apart. When they checked me in the nurse told me I was about 3 centimeters dilated ,So I had to wait and walk around .When the nurse checked me again I was 5 centimeters apart. After a couple of hours my water broke.I could feel the baby pushing down out of me it was a unbearable feeling .

My nurse told me to start pushing and I would be through. My first attempt to push was extremely painful. I told them I couldn't do it and I really meant it. I want them to perform a c-section but they refused, it was to close. I started to scream in pain and then their it was a beautiful baby boy. He was 6 pounds, 13 ounces .Overall, I hated this labor compared to my first maybe I wasn't on a nove drugs.(smirks)

Personnel Thoughts:

In my interview's I saw with all these with women some kind of feelingof understanding.They seemed to all come from a place of accepting themselves through their birth experiences. Life seemed to fall into place.The first women I interviewed even went as far to say "with this birth she was given purpose". Birth allowed her to understand her own personnel deep down feelings ,feelings that seemed both mysterious and frightening.

All of these women oddly experienced a newfound freedom in relation to feelings , their bodies, andrelationships. Many felt they could move forward in life in a new direction . It seems these feelings with other experiences in birth are just components of a much larger process of bith. While generally considered powerful and profound, the particular meaning and significance of these feelings seems to be overtime fading

HW 35 - Other Peoples' Perspectives 1

Interview with Mom:

What Are Your Views On Teen Preganancy?

I feel for your generation teen pregancy does carry the same stigma it ones did .Maybe this is do to so many teens getting pregnant and media slowly but surley making it social acceptable. Its not looked at so mush as a disgrace anymore. Not to say it not terrible but when I was growing up it was the end of the world for teens who got pregant, it changed families.

If You Were a Teen Mom What Would You Do ?

If I were in those girl's shoes,Im not sure what I do.I cant say fully I rule out abortion but I would look for a alnernative like adoption because there are those couples who really want to have a child and can support it.

HW 34 - Some Initial Thoughts On Birth

When I think about birth, I immediately associate with miracle's .And their are some events which are so unlikely that their effectively impossible. In my opinion this is what makes birth so amazing because when you think about it theirs about thousand million sperm vieing for a single egg.There are so many possible things that could go wrong just in the process of having a baby. The egg has to be there at just the right time.The sperm has to makes it way into the egg. The embryo must stay planted in the uterus ,not cycled away during the woman's menstruation or in the fallopian tubes. The woman and the man must be producing the right hormones , the right cell divisions must take place in the embryo. The fetus has to stay in the womb the correct amount of time.

These odds are topped by the countless generations meeting , staying alive,until they make a exact son and a exact daughter who make up your mother and father, and of that union a thousand million children compete for fertilization, but you, only you are born.To me this is miracle in itself the ability to distill so specific a being from the chaos of improbability.