The birth of my third and youngest child was surprisingly difficult for me. Since I already went through 2 other pregnancies and births I thought this would be easy and fast. I was totally wrong! I wanted the birth to be as natural as possible so I chose to use a midwife while still having my son at a hospital. My labor started early on a Saturday so we called the midwife and headed for the hospital. After getting checked in the midwife decided the baby was on his way and should be born within an hour or so. My midwife was very calm in the beginning and had me out walking the hallways then sitting in a jacuzzi tub. As the day wore on and the pain increased and lasted for what seemed an eternity, I finally looked at the midwife and told her I needed a cesarean because I no longer had the strength to keep going. The midwife was silent and had a look of worry on her face. She left the room then came back a few minutes later and said they were preparing for the cesarean. She then said she wanted to check the baby and try one more thing. After a bit the midwife announced that the baby had his arm bent and was resting his head on it. She rearranged his arm and he immediately was born seconds before the nurses came to take me for the cesarean!
I looked at Afghanistan and childbirth and found that women there have the highest rate of death while giving birth. The babies born also have an increased chance of death due to complications and unsanitary conditions. Most Afghanistan women give birth at home alone or with a relative present. There are very few clinics and most women are not allowed to leave their homes. As stated in the article it was the search for Osama Bin Laden that brought needed financial support to train Afghanistan women to be midwives and to set up more clinics. Now the concern is as the troops are pulled out of Afghanistan so will the funding.
I picked this article as it discussed midwives and made me see how blessed we are to have all we have here. If I had been in Afghanistan during the birth of my youngest child we would not be alive today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/may/06/delivering-safe-childbirth-afghanistan
Shari, it’s interesting to know that you can have 4 pregnancies and they are all different. A lot of times you hear of women who have similar birth experiences. For example, a friend of mine had all three of her children between 2-3 weeks early and they all weighed a little less than 6 lbs. Two of my cousins have had caesarian sections during their 2 birthing experience. I have not been blessed with children, so I am not familiar labor experience, but I commend anyone women who attempts to delivery naturally. In our country its an option to go without medications during birth, women in other countries have to go with medication, because they do not have access to it. Thanks for sharing your personal experience!
ReplyDeleteyou really had an interesting birth experience. I always wondered what it was like to have a midwife and was glad to hear how supportive she was of you.
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