Health

I was reading a post on Facebook recently about natural childbirth and how today the process has been turned into an almost traumatic ordeal. Although I realize that many c-sections could possibly be avoided and that what is a beautiful, natural process has been turned into a medical event, I also appreciate the blessings that come from modern medicine.

All three of my kids were born by c-section. My first was 17 days over due and I was induced on a Friday and then sent home and on Monday induced for over 17 hours and didn't even dilate to 1. That was 22 years ago and they were confused as to why that was happening as he wouldn't even drop. So they did an xray (Yes! Gasp..an xray..keep in mind it was 22 years ago). They determined that he was 9 pounds 6 ounces, give or take a pound. The problem was that the inside of my pelvic bone was too narrow to give birth to any baby who was over 4 pounds.

The c-section wasn't fun, but the result was a beautiful, 9 pound 14 ounce baby boy. The day we were to leave the hospital two nurses came into the room with tears in their eyes. They told me that they had to keep the baby because lab results showed that I had group B strep.

They explained that it is a vaginal infection that pregnant women sometimes get and for some reason it seems to run in patterns where they see a lot of it. They went on to explain that if the baby got it they would have swelling of the brain and it generally wasn't even caught before it did massive brain damage or the baby died due to the ability of the newborn's skull to expand because of the soft spot. They further informed me that in the last month they had four newborns die of this and one that had severe brain damage.

They did a UA on my newborn and he tested positive for the anti-body. They explained that they can get a false positive, but because of that they had to do a spinal tap on him, put him on IV antibiotics and keep him until the spinal tap results came back. If positive they would have to keep him for up to 14 days. Oh, and the type of antibiotics they would have to put him on could cause liver damage and hearing loss.

I cried when the Dr. told me after 3 days that he did not test positive and could be taken off of the antibiotics. What did the Dr think saved him from getting this infection even though he was 17 days over due and induced twice for an extended time period? The c-section! He said that even though I was induced, my water never broke and had that happened, my son would have been exposed to that for all those hours. Then, had he started to "go down the shoot" (as my then husband who is a veterinarian called it), he would have had great difficulty getting into the birth canal and would have possibly been stuck there and they would have had to use suction. All that time he would have been exposed even longer to the bacteria.

On August 22nd my son turned 22. He is a senior at MIT in Cambridge, majoring in aerospace engineering, otherwise known as a rocket scientist. LOL... He is also the starting linebacker and co-captain of the MIT Fighting Engineers Football team. Today is the first game of his senior year.

Do I wish I could have had a beautiful, peaceful birth? Sure. Do I think it would have been cool to have one of those water births? Sure, ok. I've often been asked if I feel like I was cheated because I had c-sections and never had a "real" birth. I'm happy to say that I don't miss having not experienced that. All I have to do is look at my son and anything we went through during that time was nothing but a blessing.