Marie Evangeline--Part 1
After I had my firstborn, I stated that there are already enough birth stories on the Internet; I didn't feel the need to detail every bit of his delivery.
The long labor and eventual slicing out of my second child was very much like the first go-round. No need to tell the web.
My third child was born a year ago via planned repeat cesarean, and this time I do feel compelled to write about it. Marie's birth was abrupt, awkward, sterile, and impersonal. These posts may sound like self-pity, but I desperately want other moms who have scheduled cesareans to feel represented within the extensive web tradition of birth stories.
I have read many stories of vaginal births, the details of which are usually variants of series such as: lost mucus plug (or didn't), water broke (or didn't), labor started (perhaps in the lower back), mom bounced on physio ball for hours in her living room (or walked, or sat in her tub, or slept), contractions intensified, mom went to hospital, cervix was a 2 (or 4, or 8!), she growled like a wolf (or moaned like a cow, or was stoically quiet, or dug her nails into her partner's arm), she got an epidural (or she didn't, or perhaps it didn't take on one side), baby got stuck sunny side up (or didn't, or her cervical lip got in the way, or baby's heartbeat dropped for too many scary moments), mom pushed for an eternity (or hardly pushed at all).
I sound monotone here, but these stories are anything but monotone. Each is an epic tale; each is unique; each conveys a suspenseful, and often agonizing, other-worldly experience that typically ends with euphoria--the baby gives a glorious cry, the cord might get to pulse for a while, the baby is laid immediately on her mother's breast. There is a definite climax to these stories. I read, enraptured, about my fellow mothers' battles, heartaches, and victories.
What is there to say about a scheduled cesarean, a relatively quick and routine procedure?
Much, actually.
Let's start sharing.
The long labor and eventual slicing out of my second child was very much like the first go-round. No need to tell the web.
My third child was born a year ago via planned repeat cesarean, and this time I do feel compelled to write about it. Marie's birth was abrupt, awkward, sterile, and impersonal. These posts may sound like self-pity, but I desperately want other moms who have scheduled cesareans to feel represented within the extensive web tradition of birth stories.
I have read many stories of vaginal births, the details of which are usually variants of series such as: lost mucus plug (or didn't), water broke (or didn't), labor started (perhaps in the lower back), mom bounced on physio ball for hours in her living room (or walked, or sat in her tub, or slept), contractions intensified, mom went to hospital, cervix was a 2 (or 4, or 8!), she growled like a wolf (or moaned like a cow, or was stoically quiet, or dug her nails into her partner's arm), she got an epidural (or she didn't, or perhaps it didn't take on one side), baby got stuck sunny side up (or didn't, or her cervical lip got in the way, or baby's heartbeat dropped for too many scary moments), mom pushed for an eternity (or hardly pushed at all).
I sound monotone here, but these stories are anything but monotone. Each is an epic tale; each is unique; each conveys a suspenseful, and often agonizing, other-worldly experience that typically ends with euphoria--the baby gives a glorious cry, the cord might get to pulse for a while, the baby is laid immediately on her mother's breast. There is a definite climax to these stories. I read, enraptured, about my fellow mothers' battles, heartaches, and victories.
What is there to say about a scheduled cesarean, a relatively quick and routine procedure?
Much, actually.
Let's start sharing.
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