First story:
It felt like the longest birth I ever had, being that I had been through two birth experiences before. My water broke at a unexpected time, but surprisingly I was on my way to the hospital to visit a sick aunt. Thank god this happened when it did, I always think omg what if I was no where near a hospital! Well anyway, during my pregnancy I carried high, I exercised often, ate healthy foods, and most of all I quit smoking. For me this wasn’t hard to do, because I would do anything for my child to be healthy. During my pregnancy I read a lot of books on birth to prepare myself, but when the time came everything that I had read went out the window and all I could do was scream. My water broke on August 8th, 1984. All I felt was pain from the contractions, I couldn’t even sleep. I walked and walked and walked...trying to relax had to be the hardest thing to do. I had two different doctors throughout my pregnancy due to shift changes, and one of the doctors gave me morphine. The only things I could think about while going into the hospital room was “I need food and juice!!!” I was dehydrated and it felt as if I hadn’t eaten in days. It was 12 hours into the pregnancy, I was 7cm. When reaching 10cm, I had to keep pushing as hard as I possibly could. There still was no progression, after all of that pushing I did..I felt like the baby was never going to come. This is when I decided to just have a Cesarean. It was around 4.00am, and the doctors thought it would be in my best interest to give me an epidermal, it didn’t take the first time so they had to give me another one. Numb-ness filled my body from my neck down, I felt like I was paralyzed. I couldn’t even feel when I was breathing. Around 6:00am I delivered a baby boy. He weighed 8 pounds and 3ounces. A healthy boy, and I began to breast feed him around 6 days after recovering from the birth. I was strong and so was he...this is all I wanted.
Me: Did you eat during birth?
Her: Barely, only ice chips. That was the only thing the doctors allowed me to eat.
Me: What were your cravings?
Her: The main cravings that I had during my pregnancy was grape juice and olives.
Me: Did music play in the hospital room during the birth?
Her: No, I didn’t even know that we could do that.
Me: What is your most memorable moment of your birth experience?
Her: It was when the birth was finally over and I saw my baby boys face for the first time...I will remember that moment for the rest of my life.
Second story:
I was 18 when I found out that I was pregnant with my first child. I was shocked and excited all in one. I needed to finish my education, but I needed to rest for the health of my baby. It was September 11th, and this is the day where America remembers the troops who died during the terrorist attacks...but for me it was the day where I went into labor. For me this was one of the most unprepared days of my life. I panicked when I felt pain and I knew it was close to my due date. I automatically called my boyfriend and we rushed to kings county hospital. I got to the hospital around 5:30pm and was immediately rushed into a delivery room. Breathe, push, breathe, push...these were my only actions that I did. I guess all of the breathing and pushing worked because before I knew it, the doctors were saying that the baby was coming. This is where the birth took its turn. He was in the wrong position, because his shoulder was close by where the head should have been, and the doctors had to give me a sedative for all of the pain I was feeling. After given me the sedative, I guess my body didn’t respond as planned because I passed out. Therefor I was unconscious for the rest of my time giving birth. Even though I had passed out, the doctor at that time still decided to use forceps to get the baby in the right position in order for me to have a vaginal birth. This turned out to be nothing like I expected it to be. My baby was too large to even be born vaginally and my perineum had torn so much that I would eventually have to back to the doctor to get surgery. Even though this had to be done, the only thing I cared about was the health of my child. When I finally saw my baby he weighed 6pounds and 2 ounces. He looked to tiny and precious, but I could tell that something was wrong. Around his left eye looked black and blue and he just didn’t look as healthy as other children I had saw after being born. I cried and cried asking the doctors if he would be okay, pleading with them to make sure my child not die. They told me everything would be fine, but I didn’t believed them. This made my birth experience unpleasant. How could I be excited when my child didn’t look healthy? How could I rest when I knew something was wrong? Well after a few days I trusted the doctors words that my baby was okay, and I thanked god. Even though it had turned out to be a bad experience, bringing a new life into this world over shadowed all the negative things that happened during my birth process.
Me: After this experience, did you ever contemplate having another baby?
Friend: Of course! I said to my boyfriend...this is our first and last child. I didn’t think I could go through that process again.
Me: Is that still the way you feel today?
Friend: Well I kind of got over it, but when thinking back on that day all I could remember was feeling pain. So maybe I would consider having another child some day...but no time soon.
Third story:
On September 6th, 2002 I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Before getting to the delivery room, the doctors gave me an ultra sound in order to find my child’s heartbeat. I became so worried when they told me that they couldn’t find her heartbeat, I begin to think the worst possible things. What if my child wont make it through. They told me I had severe toxemia so they decided to use pitocin, in order to speed up the labor. This method seemed to be unsuccessful because I still wasn’t dilated and my water had not broke. My blood pressure begin to rise, and at the end they chose to do a cesarean. When the doctors begin to cut me open, they found that I had been internally bleeding. This is when I found out the bad news that my baby had died. I cried and held onto my husband just thinking about how hard we had tried to have this baby. After having my c-section, I got to hold my daughter in my hands. I looked at her breathless body and I knew I had to let her go. The nurses took her, and I rested. I knew funeral arrangements were on the way. I found out that she died due to placental abruption, and that if we wanted we can continue to try to have a child. At this time, I didn’t really want to think about having another child. I had to first cope with the fact that I had lost my first ever child that I carried. I never thought something like this would happen to me, I always read about it and heard about it...I guess I was naive.
Me: How did you cope with the lost of your child?
Women: I knew I had to get over it eventually, and I couldn’t blame anyone for it. I came to the conclusion that this is what god wanted...so I had to accept it.
Me: Did you ever try to conceive another baby after that?
Women: I did, and I had a healthy baby boy...but I will never forget my first ever child.
Fourth story:
On October 12, 1990 at 3:14 pm I remember giving birth to a beautiful baby girl, like it was yesterday. I was at my sisters house because a week ago my family had put together a baby shower for me. On this particular Thursday, the weather was beautiful and the sun was out because it was about 70 degrees. I was planning to go home, but I was waiting on my child’s father to come and get me. When he arrived I met him outside because I wanted to enjoy the weather. We walked to prospect park because my sister lived about 15min from the park. I always enjoyed walking. Anyway, we had a beautiful day walking up and down the hills we went. During our stroll in the park, I began to get sharp in my stomach. It would come and go so I wasn’t concerned. It was about 2pm and we decided to head back to my sister’s house. I remember as we reached closer to her house we were waiting for the light to change at the corner of her block. As the light turned green I began to step down off the curb and then it hit me. I had a pain in my lower stomach that was so severe that it prevented me from stepping off of the curb. It knew at that point that the baby was coming. I told my child’s father to call a cab because I could not move. As we stood on the corner waiting, the pains were coming faster and faster to the point I felt like I was going to give birth right on that corner. The cab pulled up, and I eased my way in. As we were driving all I could think was that I wanted the cab driver to please hurry up because I felt the baby coming and I was afraid I was going to give birth in the cab. It only took us about ten minutes to arrive at LICH. It was 3:00pm when we got there, this is when I became scared knowing that I was going to bring a life into this world. As we entered the emergency room, I was walking holding my babies head...because it seemed like it was going to pop right out! I told the nurse to please hurry up...the baby is coming! They immediately rushed us to the delivery room. My child’s father told me not to worry and that we is going to call everyone to let them know that I was in labor. Well two minutes later the nurse had to run and get him because she knew I was going to push the baby out at any moment. I pushed about 3 times, and there was my little girl. It had to be the easiest birth I ever had. She weighed 6lbs12oz’s 19 3/4 inches. It took me only 14 minutes to deliver, wasn’t I glad!!
Me: What would you have done if you had to deliver the baby in a cab
Women: No way was I doing that! Under any circumstances.
Me: 14 minutes? That is the shortest birth process I have ever heard
Women: Yea my friends joked about it, saying I was never pregnant in the beginning if it took that short of a time.
Me: Were you giving any medication, and epidermal or anything?
Women: Not at all, everything was natural.
