Every Mom has a story to tell you; about their pregnancy, about the birth of their child, about how different one child is to the next, the good, the bad, and the unpleasantness of being awake all hours of the night. One of the first thing someone said to me when I got pregnant was not to listen to the delivery horror stories. Everyone is different, every delivery is different and I should not let someone's horror story scare me. I didn't realize how important that was until yesterday.
As I'm talking to another Mom about their child, they bring up that they had a midwife and gave birth at home (which I applaud every time). She continued her story with 38 hours of labor, an over 9lb baby and having to basically poison herself with castor oil to get her labor going. At this point, I may have had a look of "OH MY...What the?" on my face. She also let me know that so many times, the doctors at the hospital wanted to induce her because she was past 40 weeks and because of her weight. She ignored them all and had the baby at home at 42 weeks; again Bravo! Then she started to bash the hospital I will be delivering in (not knowing I was going to deliver there). She said they have a 38% emergency c-section rate, and that 7 of her girlfriends had their babies there and they were ALL c-sections. No matter what my birth plan says they will try to bully me into starting my labor/breaking my water/ etc. etc. etc. At this point, all I could do was listen and nod politely because I just couldn't believe my ears. After finishing her rant, she asked what my plan was. I smiled and said where I would be delivering, who my doctor was and initially I did want a c-section but because of timing and work, I will try to deliver my baby with an epidural. She was a little taken aback, and I'm sure wondering if she had offended me. I explained that I am not one to be bullied into anything regardless the situation. She explained that you are in a different state of mind, and that I would be more easily persuaded. Again I just nodded and accepted what she said (she doesn't really know me very well). After she left, I sat and thought to myself a few minutes before proceeding with my day. I wanted to thank the person who told me not to pay attention to such horror stories (though for the life of me, I can't remember who it was) and second, I thought about my doctor and how I trust him. If the baby or myself were truly in danger, he would tell me without hesitation and I am not opposed to a little help so I'm not in agony for hours and hours trying to deliver the baby.
To this woman I would like to say "Thank You". Thank you for giving me that "horror story" that I was warned about and sharing your birthing story with me. I'm not scared because I know that the pain is temporary and so many women before me have done it, with or without drugs, c-section or not. However it happens, I'll hold my baby in my arms at the end of it all and will have another story to share with others.
xo-JV
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