1. Please give me your full name, how you want to be identified (full name, first name only, anon, etc.), your general location, number of children, number of cesareans, number of VBACs, anything else pertinent to your story.
Nikola, mother of three children (6,5,1), two born in birth center in New England, one born in hospital in Germany. All three were vaginal births, no interventions. All three were two weeks overdue.
2. Did (do) you ever believe that you might have a cesarean? When did you first think that a cesarean was a possibility for your birth?
I never believed I would have a cesarean. As I would find one very traumatic, I read about c-sections to prepare myself in case I had to have one. That made me want to have one even less.
3. When did your practitioner bring up a discussion about cesarean? Before labor? During labor? Was it a surprise?
At my birth center, cesareans were only routinely discussed in a birth class, but treated as an exception and a sometimes necessary intervention. Had any medical intervention been necessary, our midwives would have brought us over to the adjoining hospital and remained our midwives throughout the labor. This, I believe, results in a lower intervention rate, along with the fact that all routine care and exams during the pregnancy are conducted by the same midwives.
4. If you had a cesarean, do you think you could have done anything to prevent it?
n/a
5. If you had a cesarean, did you or your baby experience complications? If yes, which ones and how did you feel about this?
n/a
6. If you had one good piece of advice for pregnant women or women considering having a baby, what would it be when it comes to cesarean prevention?
Try to understand the culture you are living in regarding birth, so that you can make the most informed choice possible in order to avoid interventions you do not wish. Read about birthing practices and study statistics, so that you might understand where births are most natural and safest for mother and baby. In the US, at least, this will not be in a university hospital, but might be a midwife-assisted birth in or near a birth center that is affiliated with a small hospital (to take that edge off for those that are afraid to be completely removed from emergency care). If properly informed, you can avoid the slippery slope of interventions that, in my opinion, often leads to cesarean sections. Still, we were lucky to have specialized medical care close by (20 min.) for our first baby after the birth due to breathing difficulties (ICU).
7. What is one sure way to have a cesarean?
Imprint in your mind that this will be the way you will give birth.
8. Did you try to prevent a cesarean? If so, how? (Did you switch doctors or midwives? Did you pay out of pocket for a homebirth? Did you stay home longer than you normally would have? Hire a doula? Stuff like that...)
We definitely did everything to prevent all interventions, including cesareans. We switched from ob-gyn care to midwife care. We had midwife-assisted births in birth centers. I wrote birth plans. I read books and talked with the midwives. I fought with doctors who were trying to tell me I was too high-risk for a birth center and would have to birth in the hospital (I had a thyroid disorder which posed no threat to the babies or me). We hired a doula to be with us at our birth. And we succeeded. We had two fantastic and easy births in a birth center in New England. When we moved to Germany and had our third, (see question number 13)
9. Advice for pregnant women in talking to those offering birth horror stories?
Say "Hey, I am afraid of a few things myself, please don't give me more to worry about, tell me something that went well."
10. Where did you get a positive view of birth? Where should others turn?
I think I got a lot of strength from my grandmother, it gave me that feeling that I could do it, too, and that I had it easy by comparison (she birthed alone at home). However, I also got a lot of support from reading Mothering magazine, Ina May Gaskin, and other comparable literature. I also lived on a farm as a child. Watching animals birth gave me a feeling since I was little that it must be easy if it's like what I saw.
11. If you have had a VBAC, what resistance did you have? (If any.)
n/a
12. What is the hardest part of having a VBAC?
n/a
13. What was pregnancy like for you? What advice do you have in general for pregnant women? Feel free to add stories or quotes here.
When we moved to Germany and had our third, our baby developed a heart arrhythmia just a few days before the due date. We had been planning a home birth (our second birth had only lasted two hours and we figured why go anywhere, and the German model is such that you can choose a midwife that works in the nearest hospital and she will come to your home for the homebirth and be your midwife in the hospital should you need to go), which was now out of the question. We gave up our midwife, who was not allowed to practice in the large university hospital that has a children's cardiology ward, and decided to have the baby there. I didn't care about my birthing experience this time as long as the baby had the right care. Luckily, it was my third birth and luckily I had prepared well for those first two, as this was a shocking experience after our cushy birth center. The first thing that happened there when I walked in (this was 1 and 1/2 hours before the baby was born) is the nurse at the window where you have to register said "oh, you're 42 weeks, well you must certainly be here to be induced." I said no, I am in full labor and was sent to a room with no chair, nothing, and waited. Then, a nurse came with about ten pages of paperwork for me to read through and sign, but by this time I was on all fours on the floor, breathing and meditating. I had to yell at her to get her to leave me alone and let me into another more comfortable room. Finally, after at least thirty minutes, I was led to a more comfortable room (including tub). I wanted to be in warm water badly and said so, but there were all kinds of excuses, until I yelled at someone to fill the tub and the head nurse was called. She finally allowed the water but the birth was so fast that as I was just in a few inches of it she asked me to please get out since water births are not allowed in that hospital (she hadn't told me that before). I was enduring all of this until I felt someone begin to examine me from behind (I was on all fours), and I blew my lid. I yelled at this head nurse to never touch me anywhere ever again without permission, etc. A few minutes later our daughter was born and up to ICU we went. It was a horrible birth psychologically, and had it been my first, I am certain all labor would have abruptly stopped as I had to concentrate all of my energy outward to fight these people off me. I am lucky that all went well, especially that the baby was fine enough to go home after 24 hrs and the arrhythmia went away completely :) after six weeks.
14. Anything else you’d like to add?
I believe that a lot of us are often misguided by the feeling that we need help to have a baby, and we are afraid because we think we can't do this on our own. It takes a lot of education and meditation for some of us to realize that we don't normally need any help, we don't normally need any interventions, heck, we don't even have to know what to do, our bodies know what to do all by themselves! The key for me was to learn to let go. To let the body do what it needs to do without my fear or worry or anything else interfering.
By nikola (not verified) at Wed, 10/24/2007 - 6:30pm |
Cesareans: A New Book
1. Please give me your full name, how you want to be identified (full name, first name only, anon, etc.), your general location, number of children, number of cesareans, number of VBACs, anything else pertinent to your story.
Nikola, mother of three children (6,5,1), two born in birth center in New England, one born in hospital in Germany. All three were vaginal births, no interventions. All three were two weeks overdue.
2. Did (do) you ever believe that you might have a cesarean? When did you first think that a cesarean was a possibility for your birth?
I never believed I would have a cesarean. As I would find one very traumatic, I read about c-sections to prepare myself in case I had to have one. That made me want to have one even less.
3. When did your practitioner bring up a discussion about cesarean? Before labor? During labor? Was it a surprise?
At my birth center, cesareans were only routinely discussed in a birth class, but treated as an exception and a sometimes necessary intervention. Had any medical intervention been necessary, our midwives would have brought us over to the adjoining hospital and remained our midwives throughout the labor. This, I believe, results in a lower intervention rate, along with the fact that all routine care and exams during the pregnancy are conducted by the same midwives.
4. If you had a cesarean, do you think you could have done anything to prevent it?
n/a
5. If you had a cesarean, did you or your baby experience complications? If yes, which ones and how did you feel about this?
n/a
6. If you had one good piece of advice for pregnant women or women considering having a baby, what would it be when it comes to cesarean prevention?
Try to understand the culture you are living in regarding birth, so that you can make the most informed choice possible in order to avoid interventions you do not wish. Read about birthing practices and study statistics, so that you might understand where births are most natural and safest for mother and baby. In the US, at least, this will not be in a university hospital, but might be a midwife-assisted birth in or near a birth center that is affiliated with a small hospital (to take that edge off for those that are afraid to be completely removed from emergency care). If properly informed, you can avoid the slippery slope of interventions that, in my opinion, often leads to cesarean sections. Still, we were lucky to have specialized medical care close by (20 min.) for our first baby after the birth due to breathing difficulties (ICU).
7. What is one sure way to have a cesarean?
Imprint in your mind that this will be the way you will give birth.
8. Did you try to prevent a cesarean? If so, how? (Did you switch doctors or midwives? Did you pay out of pocket for a homebirth? Did you stay home longer than you normally would have? Hire a doula? Stuff like that...)
We definitely did everything to prevent all interventions, including cesareans. We switched from ob-gyn care to midwife care. We had midwife-assisted births in birth centers. I wrote birth plans. I read books and talked with the midwives. I fought with doctors who were trying to tell me I was too high-risk for a birth center and would have to birth in the hospital (I had a thyroid disorder which posed no threat to the babies or me). We hired a doula to be with us at our birth. And we succeeded. We had two fantastic and easy births in a birth center in New England. When we moved to Germany and had our third, (see question number 13)
9. Advice for pregnant women in talking to those offering birth horror stories?
Say "Hey, I am afraid of a few things myself, please don't give me more to worry about, tell me something that went well."
10. Where did you get a positive view of birth? Where should others turn?
I think I got a lot of strength from my grandmother, it gave me that feeling that I could do it, too, and that I had it easy by comparison (she birthed alone at home). However, I also got a lot of support from reading Mothering magazine, Ina May Gaskin, and other comparable literature. I also lived on a farm as a child. Watching animals birth gave me a feeling since I was little that it must be easy if it's like what I saw.
11. If you have had a VBAC, what resistance did you have? (If any.)
n/a
12. What is the hardest part of having a VBAC?
n/a
13. What was pregnancy like for you? What advice do you have in general for pregnant women? Feel free to add stories or quotes here.
When we moved to Germany and had our third, our baby developed a heart arrhythmia just a few days before the due date. We had been planning a home birth (our second birth had only lasted two hours and we figured why go anywhere, and the German model is such that you can choose a midwife that works in the nearest hospital and she will come to your home for the homebirth and be your midwife in the hospital should you need to go), which was now out of the question. We gave up our midwife, who was not allowed to practice in the large university hospital that has a children's cardiology ward, and decided to have the baby there. I didn't care about my birthing experience this time as long as the baby had the right care. Luckily, it was my third birth and luckily I had prepared well for those first two, as this was a shocking experience after our cushy birth center. The first thing that happened there when I walked in (this was 1 and 1/2 hours before the baby was born) is the nurse at the window where you have to register said "oh, you're 42 weeks, well you must certainly be here to be induced." I said no, I am in full labor and was sent to a room with no chair, nothing, and waited. Then, a nurse came with about ten pages of paperwork for me to read through and sign, but by this time I was on all fours on the floor, breathing and meditating. I had to yell at her to get her to leave me alone and let me into another more comfortable room. Finally, after at least thirty minutes, I was led to a more comfortable room (including tub). I wanted to be in warm water badly and said so, but there were all kinds of excuses, until I yelled at someone to fill the tub and the head nurse was called. She finally allowed the water but the birth was so fast that as I was just in a few inches of it she asked me to please get out since water births are not allowed in that hospital (she hadn't told me that before). I was enduring all of this until I felt someone begin to examine me from behind (I was on all fours), and I blew my lid. I yelled at this head nurse to never touch me anywhere ever again without permission, etc. A few minutes later our daughter was born and up to ICU we went. It was a horrible birth psychologically, and had it been my first, I am certain all labor would have abruptly stopped as I had to concentrate all of my energy outward to fight these people off me. I am lucky that all went well, especially that the baby was fine enough to go home after 24 hrs and the arrhythmia went away completely :) after six weeks.
14. Anything else you’d like to add?
I believe that a lot of us are often misguided by the feeling that we need help to have a baby, and we are afraid because we think we can't do this on our own. It takes a lot of education and meditation for some of us to realize that we don't normally need any help, we don't normally need any interventions, heck, we don't even have to know what to do, our bodies know what to do all by themselves! The key for me was to learn to let go. To let the body do what it needs to do without my fear or worry or anything else interfering.