Starting at the beginning

Starting at the beginning (almost)

As my mom so sweetly reminisced, “You came squawking into the world.”  

This is my birth story.

I have been hearing a lot of birth stories recently (it’s that time in my life when all my girlfriends are starting families), but, I have only my own story to share.   I am the fourth of six children.  My mom always tells us that all our births blend together. I interpret this as: each of us was born with little complication…she went into labor, we came out, there was a brief stay in the hospital, and then we all went home.  That’s pretty fantastic – 6 kids and nothing major to note about.  But, as I pressed my mom further to, please, think of my birth, to find something unique about me coming into the world, she came up with this quick memory.

I was an easy pregnancy.  Being the fourth, my mom knew what to expect.  The day I was born, she had contractions all day, yet still managed to teach a class that evening at the church. After relenting to the fact that she was, yes, actually in labor, my mom and dad went to the hospital.  She recalls that the labor was pretty short (no epidural) and…. Tada! I was born!  My mom remembers that I started squawking and carrying on with my first breath and didn’t stop until I left for college. The two of us, me, busy crying, and my mom, calmly resting, stayed in the hospital, while my very overwhelmed dad tried to manage the other 3 kids at home.  Five days later we left the hospital and so began my life…

My birth experience sounds pretty typical for a mother and her baby born within the United States. There was a hospital, trained professionals, infant and mother care and consulting, and all modern medicine had to offer. It is interesting to explore the world and see the differences and similarities birthing mothers experience based on their cultures, traditions, locations, etc.  In the Pacific Islands, depending on if a pregnant woman lives in a rural or urban region, her prenatal care and birth experience can be very different.  Many countries in this region provide free care for birthing mothers, but the accessibility pregnant women have to this care can be limited.  Many women do have a skilled birth attendant, but the definition of who constitutes as a skilled birth attendant, remains inconsistent.  Many women in the Pacific Islands have still are having home births, and because of this, many health and educational programs are being established to help support women and their babies.  Culturally, in the Pacific Islands, family is very much involved with the birth, before and after, while the mother rests and recovers.  In contrast, for my birth, my mom and dad were on their own. We did not have family to help support – my mom had to (and did) make it work.  I feel that although there are many differences between my birth story/experience and that of the birth experiences for women of the Pacific Islands, the strongest similarity is that each woman does what she feels and knows is best, based on her cultural norms and awareness, for her and her baby.

References

Maternal Health in the Pacific. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.unfpa.org/public/News/pid/2452

Philippines: Maternal Mortality Rates Not Making Sufficient Progress to Meet MDGs. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.unfpa.org/public/News/pid/2452