As you may know from following my blog or as a colleague in my previous class, I am a new mom. My daughter was born on August 4, 2013 at 12:57pm. This experience is something that I will never forget (I am sure all mother's feel that way). I was in early labor with her for over a week and begin to have painful contractions on Friday. That was three days before she was born. I remember thinking this will all be over soon and then it was three days.
Charlotte's arrival ended with her being "sunny side up" and getting stuck for over an hour. This is just my experience in child birth. I enjoy hearing stories of other children's entry into the world because every woman's experience is different.
When it comes to a child's birth and their development, I believe that even the worst birthing experience can result in positive development if the parents/parent is willing to fight for the child. This holds true with my cousins' daughter. She was born at 29 weeks, and has several developmental disabilities and delays. At this time, the doctor's do not believe she will ever walk and she has a severe brain hemorrhage that will cause other disabilities in the future. Her parents fight for her and work towards helping her achieve her goals.
I took some time during my pregnancy and looked at birth in other parts of the world. With all the buzz around William and Kate, I looked at what was normal for those woman getting ready to give birth in England. One news segment/article from Good Morning America discussed the fact that most women in England use midwives instead of doctors and this results in less c-sections. During my experience, I kept the on-call midwife instead of switching to the on-call doctor in the hospital. It was a positive experience and she encouraged me more than I believe a doctor would have in my experience.
You are right we never forget the birth of our children. I could talk for hours about the birthing experience. It was a life changing experience that no one ever forgets. You are also correct when you talked about the differences in the development of children if their parents are proactive and fight for them. Many times I have heard doctors tell parents that it is hopeless or to let go. If the parents ignore this and keep fighting children have a chance. It is the children that do not have advocates that fall behind. In my post I talked about a friend who had a very sick little boy. She was still in the hospital when they transferred her son to a city an hour away. Her husband was able to go and be with him. Little man was so sick. Dad was given the option to hold him until he let go and went with God or to try a procedure to help him fight on and Mom could come and be with him. Dad chose to fight. Now he is doing amazingly well!
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