I have been feeling F-I-N-E these last few days. From what I have heard pregnancy is supposed to be all yucky with morning sickness, aches and fatigue. I am probably jinxing myself here but I am have not had many major “pause life” issues.
When I don’t snack constantly or when I try eating big meals I’ll feel queasy but I don’t throw up. There have been a few days of me feeling dead tired too (so I rest), my brain is work much slower than normal and I am super forgetful but other than that it’s been smooth sailing here.
I finished choreographing the last bits of a song for one of my old colorguard groups in Arizona. That means I am done choreographing stuff for marching season. I also got a wild hair and just ironed some of N’s work shirts for fun while listening to and singing Judy Garland songs.
My appetite has been non-stop. Literally I am hungry every 10 minutes or so. I’ll eat something and right away I am hungry again so I just keep shoveling food in… Good times!
Today I had me some apple cinnamon oatmeal, tomato juice, tons of water, 1 cup of coffee with tons of cream, 2 garlic pickles, tons of peppercorn ranch sun chips, peanut m&m’s, tons of fig newtons, a huge salad. That just got me through the morning and early afternoon.
Over the weekend N and I headed to the local library to return all our wedding books and to get us some pregnancy books instead. I found a book I am really loving called Pushed by Jennifer Block
“According to writer and editor Block (Our Bodies, Ourselves), “the United States has the most intense and widespread medical management of birth” in the world, and yet “ranks near the bottom among industrialized countries in maternal and infant mortality.”
Block shows how, in transforming childbirth into a business, hospitals have turned “procedures and devices developed for the treatment of abnormality” into routine practice, performed for no reason than “speeding up and ordering an unpredictable…process”; for instance, the U.S. cesarean section rate tripled in the 1970s, and has doubled since then.
Block looks into a growing contingent of parents-to-be exploring alternatives to the hospital-and the attendant likelihood of medical intervention-by seeking out birthing centers and options for home-birth.
Unfortunately, obstacles to these alternatives remain considerable-laws across the U.S. criminalizing or severely restricting the practice of midwifery have led the trained care providers to practice underground in many states-while tort reform has done next to nothing to lower malpractice insurance rates or improve hospital birthing policies.
This provocative, highly readable expose raises questions of great consequence for anyone planning to have a baby in U.S., as well as those interested or involved in women’s health care.”
The book is easy for follow and has armed me with much knowledge and background info on birthing in the USA. If you are pregnant this is a book you need to read!
Personally, I have always been worried about being pressured in labor and delivery. I have many preferences and views about labor and delivery. Mainly that it is a natural process that our bodies are designed to handle.
I am not keen on having unnecessary medical interventions and I am even more worried that birthing in a hospital will leave me with no choice but to do things the way the hospital wants regardless of whether or not it is necessary (even if it is against my will).
If you don’t mind sharing info about your own birthing I would love to learn from your experiences. I know this is a very personal topic so you can answer in the comments area for other readers to reference or you can email me to privately share your story. I have tons and tons of questions:
- How were your children delivered? Via vaginal birth, c-section? Was the c-section scheduled?
- What type of birth setting was it in? In your home, birth center, hospital, in a car etc?
- Did you receive an epidural?
- What kind of provider did you use? Obstetrician, midwife, family doctor, doula etc?
- How long did labor last?
- Was your labor induced?
- Did you eat or drink juices during labor?
- Were you given Pitocin to speed up/ intensify contractions?
- Was your water (bag of membranes) broken by the doctor or did it break naturally (Aminotomy)?
- Did you use continuous EFM (electronic fetal monitoring)?
- Was an episiotomy preformed, were you asked first?
- Did they mechanically assist birth with forceps or a vacuum extractor?
- Were you allowed to move around and try out different positions?
- Were you pleased with your experience and why or why not?
- Did you or your child experience complications as a result of delivery?
- Were all your requests honored?
- Anything else you think I should know?
Oh, the pregnancy pool is up to $2.00 now, that is 2 guesses! We need more guesses though! Head over to the pregnancy pool page to see the guesses and to join in of the fun. Remember it is money in your pocket!
im a bad blogger okay uyou get this and I get my long awaited Bone ,marrow transplant? That sounds like we both made out good
I know two bloggers who recently gave birth that you could talk to – you may know them too. Marie at Memarie Lane and The Diva at I Am the Diva blog – she’s listed as just Diva in my blogroll. Tell them I sent you – they are awesome people and will answer questions. Marie even live blogged her pregnancy!
I mean her delivery, not pregnancy. She gave birth at home in an inflatable pool.
Well, sweetie, my birth story (from 1991, remember) is up – http://hotfessional.com/2008/03/24/birth-story-carnival/
It’s not pretty – but he was a healthy, hearty child and is a healthy, hearty young man.
Now, I will also tell you that I never had a smidgen of morning sickness and never, ever threw up.
Rees last blog post..Travel Day
@teeni: We were thinking about doing that actually. I had no idea she did that… Now I am headed to her blog, thanks!
CONGRATS! And my firstborn kid story is posted. In two parts.
http://andthepursuitofhappiness.blogspot.com/2007/03/keep-reading-if-you-have-uterus-or-are.html
http://andthepursuitofhappiness.blogspot.com/2007/03/happy-birthday-haste.html
And, dude, I can’t believe you got pregnant in the middle of moving cross country!!
Sunshines last blog post..Hand Wringing – Junior High Students Kinda Suck
My first two children were born in 1975 and 1976. Things were, um… different back then. No one even suggested I be awake for the delivery. It never occurred to me to ask. An episiotomy was standard procedure and accepted.
Except things went a bit wrong with baby #1. I was too doped up to know it, but found out later. My mother was hysterical as she had had a stillborn baby and several miscarriages and was pretty much kept out of my room.
I was 3 1/2 weeks late. That would never happen these days, labor would be induced I think. My OB was out of town, so I got the doctor on call and he didn’t do an episiotomy because he didn’t get to the delivery room in time. The last thing I remember is hearing a nurse say the baby was crowning as the anesthesiologist put the mask over my face.
I suspect (but do not know) that the nurse and anesthesiologist delivered my baby. I do remember the next day that every nurse on the ward was extremely solicitous to me and I overheard my OB telling the OB on call the day that hell would freeze over before he ever let one of his patients be treated by that particular on call doc.
I was still drugged, young, naive, and really didn’t know what was going on, but all those drugs did little for the pain of the contractions and the pain afterwards. I learned later in the day that I’d had 90+ stitches because of tearing.
The worst part was a couple of weeks later when I had an infection. Such a high fever that I only vaguely remember my baby screaming because she didn’t want a bottle, but the breast. I vaguely remember trying to get up, fainting and falling, and my husband calling an ambulance. What I do not know is whether the extensive tearing contributed to the infection, but I’ve always suspected it did.
This all turned out well. My baby gave birth to her own child in 2007.
Next child – my water broke while I was at my mother’s house. My husband was at a bachelor party for his best friend and he (and his buddies) thought I was just trying to break up the fun when I called him. That is, until he talked to my mother.
That delivery went very easily. Labor pains were minimal, I told them I didn’t need pain meds, but again I was knocked out for the actual delivery. My OB had promised me that he would “fix” the mess made by the previous on call OB after this birth. I was out longer than normal for an uncomplicated delivery.
Because I remembered the horrible screaming of my first child on being presented with a bottle, I didn’t even want to try breast-feeding again. Except, the drug they give to stop milk production didn’t work. It was so bad, I called to see if the drug would make my milk harmful to my baby and got no clear answer, so I toughed it out until the milk stopped producing. That, I think was one of my biggest mistakes, but I didn’t know what my baby might be getting… so, it was the best I could do at the time.
Information was not so easy to get in those days.
Third child – 1981. How things had changed! During prenatal care, I had a sonogram, I had fetal heartbeat monitoring all through labor, I had an epidural, an episiotomy and the joy of holding my baby right after she was born. I was ready to go home the next day, but not allowed to. Things hadn’t changed THAT much.
Fast forward to the birth of my granddaughter, 2007. Despite the fact that all my babies were late – from two to three and a half weeks, waiting wasn’t an option for my daughter. She had pre-eclampsia, was induced 1 day after her due date, and lucky to hold on that long.
Except she never dilated enough for natural birth. After way too many hours in labor (for her nervous mother), the monitor and the nurses couldn’t find the baby’s heartbeat. She had an emergency C-section. She ended up having THREE epidural during this time and suffered from extensive blood loss – the amount one loses during natural labor plus the C-section. She was anemic, and did not gain control over her lower body for two days. All the blood loss plus the eclampsia caused extreme fluid retention.
It took her several weeks to recover, but she’s anticipating getting pregnant again, and my granddaughter is the cutest, smartest, most adorable child in the world. Everyone except any other mother or grandmother would agree with me 🙂
So… this comes across as a bit scary and why worry a pregnant woman with things that can go wrong?
Frankly, you are not likely to experience any of the above — but I urge you to consider an episiotomy, and to not completely eliminate the possibility of an epidural.
While opinions vary, it’s good to keep in mind that compared to other countries, U.S. infant mortality may be over-reported. Some countries may count as stillborn any baby that dies within 24 hours of birth, for example. Or they do not include babies of under a certain birth weight, length, or gestation period in their statistics.
What I truly believe is that no firm decision can be made ahead of time. Natural childbirth could be an excellent choice for you, but it would have resulted in the death of my granddaughter and possibly of her mother.
I’ve wasted way too many words to say don’t limit your options, haven’t I?
Decide what would be optimal for you and N, but be careful about thinking it absolutely has to be that way.
Donna B.s last blog post..Defining What I Want From Genealogy Research
My deliveries were old school too. I notice that your hovering thingie in commentluv is wonky. You should email Andy and he will send you a fix. He’s fabulous that way.
witchypoos last blog post..Weiner
You know, I’ve tried to visit your blog before but it always refreshes to a Google page after about three seconds. So I opened it in Firefox instead of IE, works much better now! 😛
My other birth stories are here, they might answer some of your questions, and they explain why I ended up birthing the way I did this time.
http://memarielane.com/2008/03/22/c-me-n4k3d-n0w/
The way birth is approached in this country is RIDICULOUS! I was actually planning on writing a bit more about it soon after I saw the treatment water birthing was given on The Office last week. The AMA is actually trying to outlaw homebirth right now, nationally, even though it has been proven to be MUCH safer than hospital birth. The fact is, childbirth is the biggest money maker that hospitals have; a normal birth generally costs about $20,000, as opposed to a home birth, which costs about $3,000, and that includes all prenatal care. As homebirth becomes more popular, hospitals stand to lose a lot of money, and they’re scared. They’re more concerned about profits than people and that’s the sad truth.
Memarie Lanes last blog post..It’s not you, it’s me.
btw very few ob’s or midwives perform episiotomies anymore unless they use forceps or a vacuum. they’ve found that the perineum tends to tear along the path of least resistance, sparing muscle tissue that might be cut unnecessarily for an episiotomy. but for the most part practitioners now endeavor to stretch the perineum to avoid the necessity in the first place.
the truth is, you can plan things however you like, but they will rarely happen that way. the best advice i can give to anyone, whether birthing at home or at hospital, is to breathe deeply and slowly and not to be afraid. Fear is the straw the breaks the camel’s back in childbirth. Stay calm and think of the happiest memories you’ve got. If anything at all is irritating you, get it gone. The biggest irritant for me during labor is being touched, and people are always trying to touch a laboring woman. 😛 Just relax, don’t fear, and breathe. 🙂
Memarie Lanes last blog post..It’s not you, it’s me.
I loved being pregnant, and was only in labour for 2 hours, and yet, being the wimp I am, my last words before being wheeled out of the delivery room where, “NEXT TIME I AM ADOPTING”,, lol. The funniest thing I heard after the fact was that my daughters dad was doing everything I did, he held his breath, matched my breathing, squeezed his eyes shut etc. along with me. I was a little busy to notice it, but one of the nurses told me after, she said it was hilarious but sweet all at the same time!
Loris last blog post..I lost myself and loved it!
Well as you know, I just had my little boy 2 months ago.My daughter is 9, almost 10. I chose different things with my son then I did my daughter.
I had my daughter in 1998. I was only in labor for 6 hrs 25 min which is great for your first child.I wanted to have her naturally to experience the whole thing since she was my first. I had a very hard time pushing her out. I probably spent like 1 1/2 hrs pushing. They gave me an episiotomy and I ripped really bad. I got a ton of stitches. Them putting the stitches in hurt worse then the whole delivery process. She was 6 pds 13.6 oz and 18 1/2 inches long. I could barely walk for like 3 months. Keep in mind I had her in Arizona. My OB delivered her.
Now my son, I had him here in Virginia. My husband is in the Military. I had one OB the whole pregnancy but she didn’t deliver the baby. Whoever was on duty at the Naval Hospital delivered him. I was a little wierded out by all this because the Military is so in-personal. I like the fact of having one OB and them deliver the baby. Because of how much pain I was in with my first, and how bad I had ripped, we talked about getting a c-section beacause of the horrible tearing, but I wanted to try to have him vaginally. I also chose to get the epidural for the pain too. I went into early labor at 3 am and woke Adam up at like 4:30. I was having contractions every 10 minutes and I was spotting, so I knew it was time. We got to the hospital about 5 am. I had really high blood pressure at that point, so they had to do some tests. They gave me pitocin but I had them wait until I got the epidural because my water had broke and the contractions where hurtin bad. I was worried about the pain of getting the epidural because I am deathly afaraid of needles, but I didn’t look at the needle and i was so occupied by the pain of the contractions, that the needle going in didn’t phase me. Adam said the needle was huge! I had Riley at 10:21 am. he was 8 pds 4.2 oz and 21 inches long. I tore but not as bad as with my first. I also had to wear an oxygen mask while I was pushing him.
Normally, they won’t let you drink any fluids when you go into labor. You can suck on ice chips, but that’s about it. The only thing about the epidural is that you go numb from wait down so you don’t really feel that strong urge to push as you do having a child naturally.
You know, whatever descisions you make, stick with them and don’t let anyone change your mind.Here in Virginia, they won’t give you an episiotomy unless they have to. My doc told me that if you get one, it makes you tear more. She said it’s like trying to tear a piece of paper. If you cut a slit in the paper it will tear alot easier then trying to tear it without the slit.
I also considered doing my second delivery in the water but I decided against it, because I wanted the opprotunity to get the epidural if I needed it.
Both my deliveries where pretty fast, which I was glad of. I might want one more child in a couple of years. I had the undesirable affects of delievry like hemmoroids and stuff like that so if you have any questions feel free to ask.
Get prepared for one of the best days of your life, and get prepared for tiny amounts of sleep.lol
@melissa: You were already having contractions and they cave you pitocin still? Were you able to push fine after the epidural?
Garlic pickles? Hmm, interesting. With Taylor, I ate sliced bananas sandwiched between sour cream and onion pringles and dipped the whole thing in BBQ sauce. I lived on that for most of the pregnancy:)
Beckys last blog post..Financials, Spreadsheets and MIDAS, oh my!
Wow, Becky that is quite a concoction! N tried to get me to eat some pickle flavored pringles yesterday, not nearly as weird as your banana sandwich. Too fun!
That might explain why Taylor marches to her own drummer:) With Seth, I lived on Burger King original chicken sandwiches and cherry icees.
Beckys last blog post..Financials, Spreadsheets and MIDAS, oh my!
@Becky: I am not eating anything too crazy. I am sad actually. I thought my eating would be more fun…
Haha. Don’t worry. Its still early. My craving started around the second trimester:) You have plenty of time to eat weird stuff!!
Beckys last blog post..Financials, Spreadsheets and MIDAS, oh my!
yeah, they gave me pitocin and the nurse had said it was to make my labor faster. But I don’t really understand that because I was doing fine on my own. The contractions where coming on strong and regular. The gave me like 2 or 3 bags of pitocin after Riley was born too because my blood pressure was so high they wanted to make sure i was getting dehydrated. I was so swollen everywhere when I came home and like a month afterward. Maybe that’s why they gave me the pitcocin in the first place, to keep me hydrated.
I don’t think the epidural affected my pushing at all. I just had a hard time pushing both kids out. The nurse was telling me to hold my breath until the count of 10 and I couldn’t. That’s when they gave me the oxygen mask to make sure I was breathing ok.
Everything is such a whirlwind that happens during labor. There’s so much going on and so many emotions going through you. You have some much pain, but when you look at your baby for the first time, you forget about it all. It’s worth all the pain in the world 🙂 Do you want a boy or girl? What about N ?
@melissa: We would like to have a boy first… but a girl would be so much fun too. Either way we’ll be jazzed.
Man, I am really not excited about all the meds and monitoring hospitals subject laboring women to… I have read the pitocin often makes the labor pain worse and that the doctors are administering it left and right.
Okay…..
My water broke, but I wasn’t having any contractions, so I was hooked up to pitocin, or as I like to call it the “Devil’s juice.” I had to have an internal monitor placed because I was having back labor and they couldn’t monitor anything with the regular hook ups. Internal monitors hurts like heck to be inserted. I had an epidural. I loved my epidural. I just sucked on ice chips, but I hear that also having sour candy on hand is nice. I wasn’t free to move around because of all the wires I had. Plus when you have an epidural you can’t walk. I also had an episiotomy, but was asked first. They were ready to use the vacuum on my son, but in one final push he came out without needing it. That’s all I can remember right now……
The main reason they do all the meds an dmonitoring in the hospitals is because OB’s and labor nurses have the highest amounts of lawsuits against them. If something goes wrong during delivery, that could’ve been prevented with monitoring or a med, BAM!! lawsuit. I’ve seen it happen more than once. This is why the number of OB’s is declining.
Beckys last blog post..Financials, Spreadsheets and MIDAS, oh my!
Check out this website:
http://mothering.com/
I get this magazine, but didn’t discover it until AFTER I’d had Wynnie. I have the “Pregnancy” issue from a few months ago I’ll send you if you want me to.
They are VERY informative about natural childbirth and have so, so many alternatives to cutting, forceps, vacuuming, etc.
In Colorado the c-section rate is said to be one in 4 births, but among my friends, 3 out of 4 have had c-sections.
If you decide you want certain things, make a list, discuss it with your midwife and review it several times.
Hyphen Mamas last blog post..Because I’m A Sharer