My inspiration for wanting to be a part of Expecting Success
stems from my own birth experience. Prenatal classes are not offered in my
area, & I knew with all that was going on in our lives (home renovations, a
family members illness), that we would not be able to travel to the city to
attend prenatal classes there. Our health unit only had VHS movies to watch,
which I did take home, but I never did track down a VCR to watch them with. I
read through the health regions prenatal classes that they offer online, but
the site was difficult to find & I am not sure I really retained much of
the information. I did feel somewhat confident- after all, I am an RN & I
thought that attending births at work had given me enough knowledge to cope
with labor & delivery. I never for one second thought that I would not be
able to deliver my baby & would end up with an emergency C-section. I
didn’t have a specific birth plan by any means, but I fully envisioned myself
having a drug-free labor & vaginal birth.
I was
induced early in the a.m. & slowly labored throughout the day & night.
I wasn’t fully prepared or educated enough to cope with the exhaustion, pain,
& duration of labor. I do feel I coped well, however I was very unwilling
to try different labor positions. Looking back, I wish I would have walked more
& tried different positions to see if would have helped assist with
delivery. After unsuccessfully pushing for a little over an hour, my physician
informed us that our baby’s head was indeed stuck, & that there was no way
that the vacuum or forceps could be used. I was going for a C-section.
The whole
situation is still somewhat foggy, but I think I was mostly scared &
shocked that I was going to put under a general anesthetic & not see the
birth of my baby. I was also terrified because my husband wasn’t able to be in
the OR with us. That is something that still bothers me to this day. Helplessness is definitely a feeling I would
use to describe the situation. However, we were blessed with a beautiful,
healthy baby boy & I did recover very quickly. My
husband & I are very grateful for the wonderful care my son & I
received from our doctors & nurses.
This experience
has shaped my vision as a consultant with Expecting Success. I want to be able
to offer high quality programs & personal support to the mothers in my
rural area. I want to help women be educated & empowered throughout their
pregnancies & deliveries. Just because we choose to live where we do,
doesn’t mean that we should be refused access to excellent information &
support. I can’t wait to meet you all & see where Expecting Success takes
us!
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