Saturday, September 15, 2007

Babies, Babies, Everywhere!

So my sister in-law had her beautiful baby girl. All 6lbs of her are very pretty, but she seems very lethargic. They (as in I assume the docs at the hospital) say it is due to the epidural. Is it me or is that really scary? She had an epidural 2.5 days ago and the baby is still feeling its effects...wow. Not to mention, my sister in law said "...the contractions didn't hurt, it was the pressure that was uncomfortable." My reply: "...of course it didn't hurt, you had an epidural when you were 3 cm." The nurse gave her an epidural early in the game so that she wouldn't feel too much pain when the doctor broke her water. They also sent her home with bagfuls of formula and a nipple shield. Bagfuls of formula to a mother who was in tears because her baby was latching on but not sucking. Here's a thought, maybe she wasn't sucking because she was still drugged up. My lil' sis is feeling rather overwhelmed at all the post-partum information and stated I wish someone had told me some of this before. Ding, ding, ding!!! This is all that I want, patients to be able to be make informed decisions. In order to make informed decisions, education must be performed FIRST. I think it would probably be better to educate before the baby gets here, and before the hormones are all over the place.
Everything I have been reading on other blogs has come to surface it seems in this experience. An unnecessary inductions, super aggressive drug intervention, the hospitals pushing formula like drug dealers none of these things seemed out of the ordinary to anyone else except for me. I did not want to make anyone feel uncomfortable about their experience, but all I could do was vent to my husband that this is not what I want for our children, really anyone's children. I am having such a hard time with this hospital childbirth situation.
Speaking of hospital births, my sister just told me she is expecting her third child. Congratulations!? I add a question mark because I know that this was not planned and she had actually made plans to go back to school to eventually become a midwife. I just pray that she is still able to explore that path.

Yea Babies!!!!

1 comment:

minority midwife said...

Hey Ashley! I did my first pap smear/pelvic exam Friday night! It was a HUGE moment!!!!

Have done your first yet?
Did you get a PDA?

LP

PS: I had to freeze my blog because my identity has been discovered. If you email me at minoritymidwife@gmail.com, I will send you a private email so you can still log on to read!