These birth stories, in honor of Cesarean Awareness Month (CAM), come from Elayne Glantzberg. To have your story posted on this blog, email it to blog@ican-online.org.
Elayne sends along her four very different birth stories, all previously published on her family’s blog. Below are excerpts with links to the full stories.
Cesarean with 26-week triplets: “I didn’t even notice when they first got started; I asked my doctor what was happening and he said they were already cutting. It took them a while to get to my uterus, but when they did, everything happened at once.
The nurse behind me said they were at the babies, and just a few seconds later they had Brenden out. He cried really good. They rushed him out of the room pretty fast, and I didn’t get to see him; Brian’s head was in the way as the doctor was carrying him out. No sooner was Brenden out of the room then they had Tamara out. Her they brought by for me to see and touch before she left the room. The same with Caitlin. She was still bent in half with her feet up by her head when I saw her! So Brenden and Tamara were born at 12:09 and Caitlin was at 12:10.” Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
HBAC turned CBAC: “We transported to the hospital. I rode in my mother’s car; I don’t know how everybody else got there. I certainly had the urge to push now, with every contraction, but the fear had kicked back in. I was no longer high on labor, I was scared to death because I was heading for another c-section, and the fear turned everything into pain, nothing but pain. That car ride was hell. Then we got to the hospital, and I was being admitted while my body was trying to push with contractions, I was exhausted to the point of collapse, I couldn’t see straight because my eyes were so swollen…and they wanted me to sign papers!!! I don’t know why, because if I changed my mind later I could just say they were signed under duress. My signature wasn’t even legible! I started out in a little back room because L&D was full.” Read the full story here.
VBA2C in a birth center: “It took me a long time to really process my second c-section. At first, I was totally okay with it, because when the call was made I was at the end of my rope and there was no other option. But when I broached the subject of another baby with my OB, and he said it would be an automatic c-section, I started thinking hard. I realized all the ways that my second birth could have gone differently, and I was determined to make it happen this time.” Read the full story here.
HBA2C: “After about 30 minutes or so of active pushing, Kender crowned, and then his head was born. Unlike with Jarod, where my hands were busy holding me up, the bouyancy of the hot tub gave me more freedom of movement, and I was able to reach down and feel Kender’s head coming out, and feel his face and his ears after his head was out. Once his head was out and he was rotating for the final bit, he started wiggling. I could actually feel him kicking and wriggling inside my vagina, pushing to get the rest of the way out! I had to push really, really hard to get his shoulders out, but once they emerged, the rest was easy and out he came.” Read the full story here.
