My grandmother had all 8 of her children under twilight sleep. When she woke up from the meds after my mother's birth the doctor announced, "surprise, you have twin girls!" and she didn't believe him because nobody had expected she had twins. She actually asked him to take the babies away because they weren't hers. 
I think my grandfather basically raised the twins, she was so disoriented after their birth and so disappointed to produce two "useless" daughters for the family.
The last baby almost killed her: she flatlined (I'm guessing from the meds) and the baby died in utero. It was the late 50's then, and it was not socially acceptable to talk about birth loss, so she never spoke about the baby that died to anyone, even her other children. She never talked about him, in fact, until another of her sons died twenty years ago. Now, when people ask, instead of saying "I have seven children," she says "I had eight children, and six are still living." I can't even imagine how freeing it is for her to finally speak about that loss, after forty years of grieving in silence.
My mother had a failed induction followed by a C-section after her water broke with me way too early, and every time I start to talk about my home birth she loses control and starts to cry. She says that if it weren't for medical science, I wouldn't be alive right now - and I respond that if it weren't for so much medical intervention, she might have been able to wait until I was ready to be born instead of having to go through such a traumatic birth with me.
I second Kriket: this abuse stops with me.
I think my grandfather basically raised the twins, she was so disoriented after their birth and so disappointed to produce two "useless" daughters for the family.The last baby almost killed her: she flatlined (I'm guessing from the meds) and the baby died in utero. It was the late 50's then, and it was not socially acceptable to talk about birth loss, so she never spoke about the baby that died to anyone, even her other children. She never talked about him, in fact, until another of her sons died twenty years ago. Now, when people ask, instead of saying "I have seven children," she says "I had eight children, and six are still living." I can't even imagine how freeing it is for her to finally speak about that loss, after forty years of grieving in silence.
My mother had a failed induction followed by a C-section after her water broke with me way too early, and every time I start to talk about my home birth she loses control and starts to cry. She says that if it weren't for medical science, I wouldn't be alive right now - and I respond that if it weren't for so much medical intervention, she might have been able to wait until I was ready to be born instead of having to go through such a traumatic birth with me.
I second Kriket: this abuse stops with me.
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) and had a drug free birth with just a large tear. Of course because her tear was so much worse than her episiotomy, she's insisting that I ask to be cut 
