Someone told me a weird birth story

[Greaseball]

This woman from class was telling me about her mother giving birth to her. She says her mother pushed for 36 hours. I said, "You mean she was in labor for 36 hours?" She said, "No, my mom actually pushed for 36 hours, and then she died, but the doctors brought her back to life." : : :

Is it humanly possible to push for 36 hours? I read a post from a member who said she pushed for 19 hours, but I don't remember if she said she had any breaks in between. Also, since this was a hospital birth (in 1978) I doubt a doctor would allow a woman to push for any longer than 4-6 hours. And I'm sure that most women would be happy to have a c-section after several hours of pushing. They also wouldn't let one patient use up their labor room for that long, I bet.

And who knows what she meant by her mother dying and them bringing her back to life. Maybe her mom just started to hemmorhage or passed out or something like that.

Either way, it sounds horrible. This woman recently gave birth herself and she was talking about her "weird" body that "didn't know how to work right" and how she "hated" pregnancy, so it sounds like she has internalized her mother's beliefs.

[lauraess]

Noway I can not believe someone could or would push for 36 hours. No-one would let her either i think.
I think this story is crappola, maybe one of those exagerated stories from moms in an attempt to guilt the child into being good????
Laura

[magemom]

Well, it depends on the hospital in the 70s. My mom was in labor with me for 3 days. (60 hours?) I never asked how long pushing was. These days they would have done a c section the first day from the way it sounds. Instead the on call doc told my dad they were not going to be able to save my mom (on day 3) and would he find comfort in last rights? My mom's doc came in and I was born in 45 minutes and we were both fine. At that time (73) it was hospital policy to save the baby not the mom and csections were very very rare. It sounded odd to me, but both my dad and my mom remembered the story about the same.

Pushing for days? I would think there would have to have been a break in there. Pushing for 36 hours does sound more like labor for hours is what really happened.

[darsmama]

Thats pretty outlandish...

[Greaseball]

Originally Posted by lauraess

Noway I can not believe someone could or would push for 36 hours. No-one would let her either i think.
I think this story is crappola, maybe one of those exagerated stories from moms in an attempt to guilt the child into being good????
Laura

That might be true. "I pushed for 36 hours with you and then I died; show me some respect!"

[magemom]

Originally Posted by Greaseball

That might be true. "I pushed for 36 hours with you and then I died; show me some respect!"

LMAO! My mom wouldn't say that- that would mean admitting she has a vagina.

[lauraess]

Originally Posted by magemom

LMAO! My mom wouldn't say that- that would mean admitting she has a vagina.

:
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa~~~~~~Laura

[thepeach80]

I pushed for 1.5 hours and thought I was going to die. I was so tired, I can't imagine someone pushing for 36 hours! Being in labor for 3 days, yes, it happens, pushing, no.

[juicylucy]

Originally Posted by magemom

LMAO! My mom wouldn't say that- that would mean admitting she has a vagina.

:LOL

[obnurse]

NO WAY!! Can you imagine not only the stress on the infant, but I would think that 36 hours of staight pushing would kill someone???
I found pushing to be very energy consuming, one of the physically hardest things I have ever done. How could someone do that for that long without callapsing?? Could a runner run for 36 hours straight? (with NO conditioning??)
I cannot imagine at all that this is true. Sometimes I have seen birth stories that change and grow and become more exaggerated the longer the time inbetween the birth and the story.
As for the patient dying and being brought back, well that could mean anything I suppose. People have stange perceptions sometimes of what really happened.
Just for example, one night I was working, a patients DH came up to the desk and proceeded to tell a fellow RN and I that he loved our hospital because we had saved his life. He came to our ER and his FALLOPIAN TUBE had collapsed! The put a 'tube thingy' in his throat to help him breath and SAVED HIS LIFE!! (I just about busted a gut laughing when he left!)

[Mummoth]

T

Just for example, one night I was working, a patients DH came up to the desk and proceeded to tell a fellow RN and I that he loved our hospital because we had saved his life. He came to our ER and his FALLOPIAN TUBE had collapsed! The put a 'tube thingy' in his throat to help him breath and SAVED HIS LIFE!! (I just about busted a gut laughing when he left!)

A friend of mine worked in a garden centre, and one time a lady came in asking about "chlamidia plants" ... presumably, she meant clematis.... regardless, my friend had a *very* difficult time keeping a straight face.

[gottaknit]

Yeah, definitely sounds like (maybe) 36 hours of labor has morphed into 36 hours of pushing. Until I decided to get pregnant and started researching birth, I had soooo many misconceptions about what was involved and the correct terminology...

It's not uncommon in our culture since we only hear about birth through TV shows like ER and sitcoms. Because, as some of us know, our moms don't even have vaginas, and they've certainly never had sex! :LOL

As for the C-section option; they were pretty rare 30 years ago. I think it was 5%. More likely they would have knocked her out with lots of drugs and performed an episiotomy and vaccuum extraction or forceps. Yelling at her all the while for not trying hard enough.

[True Blue]

Cesections were that rare? I'm about 27 and my mom had a c-section with me, never made it to pushing...it was decided via xray that my head could not fit through her pelvis...she had a repeat 4.5 years later with my sister (scheduled, though sis came even earlier than that).

[Elphaba]

Yeah, they were really rare up until the late 70s (I think). My mom had 5 vaginal breech births, me being the last of her vaginal births in 1974. My sister, born in 1978, was also breech and they did a c/s, classical.

[True Blue]

Now that I think about it, same with DH's family....he was a frank breech vaginal birth, but his sister 3 years later (1 year younger than I am) was a c-section. DIfferent doctor than DH, this guy just didn't do vaginal breech. You'd think you'd trust the body of a woman on her third child, 2nd breech!

[Greaseball]

I have a pregnancy and birth book from 1944, and there is just a little blurb about c-sections. And at the end, it says "Fortunately, this operation is not performed very often." :LOL I wonder if the author is still alive today?

[pamamidwife]

yeah, in a a 1950's obstetrical book that I have, it looks like cesareans were rarely performed - in fact, if a baby was transverse or breech, the first choice was to go up in side the woman vaginally and attempt to turn the baby from the inside.

the book that I have is interesting - like when it talks about DES (diethystilbesterol) in such a positive light. It does talk about x-rays, but it only seems that they used them in labor if there was a question about position, etc.

there's also a huge chapter in this textbook on homebirths.