Birth!

            I don't have that much experience with childbirth, I've never seen one outside of television & I do not remember much from when my younger brother was born, aside from my dad did my hair while my mom was in the hospital and it's probably best I don't share that memory! I've asked my mom about the day I was born a few times, and the trouble she endured along the way, so I'll share that.

            I spent eight months in my mothers womb with multiple fibroids. The fibroids threatened my life daily, and caused my mother to be on bed rest for three months in the hospital. Unfortunately, due to the fibroids, my mom felt labor pains during all eight months of pregnancy. On the morning I was born, before even giving her an epidural, the doctors cut my mom open. From what I've been told, my dad was furious. This whole story makes me scared to even have children, granted that was in the eighties and hopefully doctors aren't so careless now, but still... Yikes! I was born on October 4, two hours after my mom's water broke, a month early, at six pounds. Shortly after I was found to have an extremely high fever that wouldn't go away and was placed in an incubator for 21 days in the ICU because they thought that I had meningitis. Still not sure what was wrong or causing the fevers, but the doctors told my parents that I was going to die. Almost 27 years later and here I am alive and well, clearly born with my mother's (& father's, but he didn't deliver me after being sliced open without medication so I am giving my mom a teensy bit more credit in this department) strong spirit.

           I look forward to having kids as much as the next woman, but that story is scary and often makes me consider everything but wanting to give birth myself. My birthing story is really scary. Just the thought of my mother going through that, then being told that her child was going to die, makes me wish I could take back all of my unappreciative teenage years. My goodness! The fibroids could have killed me in the womb, fighting them and losing could have effected my life and development in any number of ways, the entire situation is insanely nerve wrecking to me. And all I did was listen to the story a few times. Giving birth is such a sensitive issue, any number of things could go wrong both internally and in the hospital or space you deliver your child in.

             I chose to learn more about child birth in India. Apparently in the past, India has had issues with both maternal and child safety during labor. According to the article I read the issues in the past have been due to women not giving birth in institutions or with people qualified to take care of them during this crucial period. This is due to information and lack there of due to social class. Which is typical in most places. There are people here that have OBGYN visits every month of pregnancy and people less informed about how important checking on their health as well as the babies health is every month or even more frequently depending on the situation. I even saw a television program once about a woman who gave birth in a Mcdonald's bathroom and did not even know that she was pregnant. Leading me to believe, she did not feel the need to visit a single doctor in at least nine months. Which is very scary. From the interview, not to judge her by looks alone please don't think that I am doing that, she did not seem very well off both financially and educationally. I assumed she didn't know or care to find out simply because she did not know any better. Which is what I believe the problem with India and other countries where so many people can fall under the radar simply because they don't have the information or funds available to do better.

Reference-

1.  http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2013/safe-childbirth-india.aspx