April is Cesarean Awareness Month. Great Expectations wants to honor all the parents that have given birth via Cesarean. This story is written by Beth, one of our Great Expectations doulas. Beth’s experiences with Cesareans make her an excellent resource for couples who are planning Cesareans, end up with unexpected Cesareans and those that are hoping to avoid a Cesarean. You may read more about Beth here.
There are few days as important as the day that you give birth to your child. On that day, your life changes forever as you meet someone that you will love most in the world. It’s a pretty spectacular day no matter how it happens! Like one third of all women in the United States, my baby was born via Cesarean and this is our story.
As I started my 3rd trimester, I was put on bedrest due to pre-eclampsia. Thank goodness for a super-amazing husband who waited on me hand and foot and cooked and cleaned and worked the whole time I was on bedrest. After a few weeks of bedrest and monitoring, my blood pressure was worse and my swelling had increased substantially. More testing was done and afterwards my doctor walked in the exam room and said “How about a C~ Section…tomorrow?” These words caught me off guard and I’m sure my mouth dropped open. My doctor explained that she did not think my body was ready for an induction, that my baby was large and most importantly that my pre-eclampsia was getting worse. It was time to have a baby.
I was excited to meet my baby! I was scared to meet my baby! I had been hoping for a natural birth, or at minimum I had not pictured meeting my baby in an OR, but of course I agreed to the plan. After a night of not much sleep and not much food (no food before surgery!), we arrived at the hospital. I was scared because they have dads wait outside of the operating room as the anesthesiologist works and until everything is done except for the cutting. Finally they brought in my husband who was WHITE AS A SHEET but it was awesome to have him there. Right behind him is my doctor who tells me I look great, everything’s set, and here we go!
Within minutes Daniel was born. The cry he made when he was first born – out of this world amazing! I think we knew that we were in the same room. He knew he wanted me,I knew I wanted him, but…well, my insides felt like they were outsides, and I was getting fixed up. There was another 30 minutes of what felt like them punching my lungs and the sloshing of everything around on the inside and then we were together and headed back to my room.
He was 9lb 5 ozs and almost 22 inches. My sweet, beautiful, big boy! Back in the room, I felt some pain, but it was manageable, I was just very shaky. I nursed Daniel, and I was able to have a lactation consultant come in to show me exactly what to do. After this, I was really shaky, so it was a good time to let Daniel meet his grandparents while I recovered a bit more from the shock of surgery. I was also able to ponder everything that had just happened. While this may not have been every woman’s birth plan, or even the one that I myself had planned, it was better than I could have hoped and a day that I will forever treasure.