Childbirth In Your Life and Around the World
My first child
did not want to enter the world so at 40 weeks I checked into the hospital on
the night of March 16th. The Pitocin was started the next morning
and they broke my water at 1pm that afternoon (so the baby was coming by 1am
the following morning no matter what - because my water was now broken the Dr.
would only let me have 12 hours to deliver him naturally or they would do a C-section).
Epidural...Epidural - that's all I wanted and all that mattered by that time.
The Anesthesiologist came in and administered it. Contractions started and I
was finally completely dilated by 10pm. I pushed for 1 hour and 45 minutes
until my baby was born. My beautiful
baby boy is healthy weighing 10pounds and 3oz I was extremely grateful.
I choose this
example because I feel that it is crazy for people to induce their labor for
special dates. My baby stayed for 40 weeks and was huge. I drank lots of milk
and I believe that’s what made him sooo big.
My thoughts
regarding birth and its impact on child development it so important for the
mother to make the right decision by taking the prenatal vitamins, folic acid and
not drinking, smoking or doing drugs that will affect the child’s development.
Africa
I am truly blessed to live in the United States. In Africa Pregnancy is a fearful and life-threatening thing to most
African women especially those living in isolated areas. Age is a factor too it is not uncommon to find
very little girls pregnant, they themselves still children. Frequently long
distances must be travelled to reach health centers. Women close to giving
birth start walking the long distance to the clinic but then some end up having
their babies along the way. This is obviously unsafe and many die in the
process.
One cannot deny that poverty is
behind maternal deaths. Here poverty can be looked at in two perspectives. One
is poverty at the family level where services at health center cost more than
what they have and secondly it is seen at government level.
In Africa a lot of the time you find
that there are few hospitals or sometimes even none at all in remote areas even
though many women live there. Poor
economic development especially in villages discourages midwives and doctors
from working in those areas and as a result women fail to have qualified people
attend to them.
There is no comparison to these
ladies don’t have a chance, living in an area where there is not enough resources
for them. I had a comfortable bed with a full nursing staff and doctors ready
for what might happen. On the other hand
they have walk long distances for checkups and even to deliver. I am blessed
once again to be an American.
