UBC Motherhood - Birth, Part 2

So I basically refused a C-Section that I, the laywoman, thought was unfounded. 

I asked the midwife if I was overreacting. What did she think?

She tried to sound diplomatic but between the lines she said these doctors only have so much patiience, and they tried to work regular hours, so the prospect of still taking care of me at, say 8pm, wasn't all that great.

My sympathy was limited. If I had to work overtime, the others should not be better off, right? Especially considering they, unlike me, were paid for it.

Speaking of money. What she didn't say was that clearly a quick operation was more lucrative than just waiting around, occupying a delivery room.

So what can we do? Before and during pregnancy I was seeing a TCM lady. She did acupunture and cranio, would you guys happen to do any of this?

Danja's eyes lit up. "Of course, why didn't you say so in the first place?" She grabbed her utensil bag, and what do you know, an entire selection of needles!

She applied them, and when she returned after a while, she held up my urine bag. 

"What a good girl you are. Over a liter! Do you have any idea how much room an empty bladder makes for your baby?"

In fact, I could tell something had shifted. It hurt, but it definitely felt like things were in motion now.

The doctor was called. 

I was told to push.

It hurt. It hurt so badly. 

Another hour went by. I asked for a break from the contractions. 

"You're not getting any break. This is about to go down now."

I tried to breathe, but in all reality I was probably super tense.

"Look, we gotta do something", he said after another hour. "I suggest to try the vacuum extraction. It may hurt for a second, but then it'll be over".

OK, sounded good to me.

The bad news was that the first attempt failed. 

It hurt but it wasn't over. It hurt because he ripped some vaginal tissue. 

"Your baby's head is too big. We need to give them more room. Meaning I'll do a small cut in order to prevent a tear" he announced next.

I was exhausted to argue or ask questions. But frankly, during all these ultrasounds he couldn't tell the baby had a large head? Too large for an average birth canal?

There was more bad news. In a controlled envirnoment they would apply some local anesthesia. In my case, however, we didn't have the time to wait for the effect to kick in.

So within a few minutes he applied a cut, the vacuum cup was inserted and placed on the baby's head, I was told to push, it hurt, it hurt, I cried out loud and almost fractured my husband's hand I was holding. I'm not kidding, he had a doctor check out his fingers later.

But then it was over. They showed me a baby who had slightly blue fingers and cried.

This is where normal Mothers cry happy tears, hug their little ones, whisper sweet nothings in their little ears, and angels play the violin.

Right?

So this Mom was exhausted and grateful it was over. This Mom said something like "hey, little guy, Im so sorry you had to go through this. I promise things will be way better from now on."

Yes, it was a boy.

Of course, right?

51cm (20 inches) tall, 4180g (9.2 pounds) heavy and a head circumference of 38cm (15 inches).

How about a little math? 

A woman's cervix gets dilated to about 10cm (some 4 inches) The 10cm are the diameter. In order to find out the circumference, you need to multiply the diameter with Pi. Pi is 3.1415cm. 

So your average exit has a circumference of 31.41cm. My baby's head's circumference was 38cm.

He didn't have a chance to make it out on his own. Poor little guy. Good thing he quickly recovered. Look at him, enjoying his first bath, given by Danja, my hero midwife!

I wasn't part of the happy bath time because I passed out. More about that tomorrow.

If yo have a minute I'd love if you checked out my other post. For almost eight years I have been participating in a monthly challenge called Secret Subject Swap. Two weeks ahead I will get a writing prompt from one of my buddies. Today's post is the question whether I would pick a cleaner, a chef or a chauffeur, free of charge for an entire year. No brainer? Tough choice? Check it out here.