It's so sad. I just watched this beautiful first time mom push out her baby with absolutly NO expression on her face at all and without making so much as a whimper. She just looked dead, like she was totally detached from what was happening to her. Actually, I guess that was the issue here -- birth was happening TO her, not THROUGH her.
She was totally numb from the waist down, on her back on a table with her legs being held all the way back, both her parents, her husband's parent, her husband's sisters, and two friends were in the room with them, bright glaring lights, someone telling her when to push & counting. They asked if she wanted a mirror to see the baby crowning and she was just like "whatever".
The doctor was pulling the baby out by the head while she was pushing, then chopped the cord the second he was out, and whisked him over to the bassinett to be poked/prodded/washed/shot up by the nurses. Finally, wrapped in about 5 blankets, and only able to see his face, he's brought to his mother and laid on her (gown covered) chest for a few brief minutes. Then he's whisked off to the nursery to be checked some more (she was induced 5 wks early). Dad went to the nursery at least. Of course the kiddo is crying at the top of his lungs the whole time he's not with Mom. The nurse says, "We like them to cry, it gets them more oxygen." Then right after she says that she sticks a glove covered finger into his mouth so he'll *stop* crying, while asking "Did she want to nurse? Oh, we better do that soon then." So the first thing this poor babe gets to suckle is some latex covered finger. Even a bottle being held by Mom is better than that!
:
Meanwhile the crowd of people in the room is growing, people are making phone calls, and the Mom's just sitting there in the middle of it all with this dazed look on her face like "What happened to me? Did I give birth?".
*sigh* It makes me want to have another baby just to prove, yet again, that you really can have a successful natural birth.
Holly
She was totally numb from the waist down, on her back on a table with her legs being held all the way back, both her parents, her husband's parent, her husband's sisters, and two friends were in the room with them, bright glaring lights, someone telling her when to push & counting. They asked if she wanted a mirror to see the baby crowning and she was just like "whatever".
The doctor was pulling the baby out by the head while she was pushing, then chopped the cord the second he was out, and whisked him over to the bassinett to be poked/prodded/washed/shot up by the nurses. Finally, wrapped in about 5 blankets, and only able to see his face, he's brought to his mother and laid on her (gown covered) chest for a few brief minutes. Then he's whisked off to the nursery to be checked some more (she was induced 5 wks early). Dad went to the nursery at least. Of course the kiddo is crying at the top of his lungs the whole time he's not with Mom. The nurse says, "We like them to cry, it gets them more oxygen." Then right after she says that she sticks a glove covered finger into his mouth so he'll *stop* crying, while asking "Did she want to nurse? Oh, we better do that soon then." So the first thing this poor babe gets to suckle is some latex covered finger. Even a bottle being held by Mom is better than that!
:Meanwhile the crowd of people in the room is growing, people are making phone calls, and the Mom's just sitting there in the middle of it all with this dazed look on her face like "What happened to me? Did I give birth?".
*sigh* It makes me want to have another baby just to prove, yet again, that you really can have a successful natural birth.
Holly
The birth center one even had her little girl there (though she got scared and went downstairs to make cookies).
In the one today, the grandma was trying to talk the new mom into giving the baby a bottle of formula so he would sleep longer and because she was afraid he wasn't getting enough milk with breastfeeding. The mom stood her ground and didn't let grandma do it. The other episodes have shown how it can be hard in those first days, nursing around the clock, but they have all been positive about it. (And have shown plenty of footage of the babies nursing). I'm impressed!
Kitty
