Past generations and Birth - Page 2

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by stacey2061

i'm just wondering what happens when a woman is given a general in labour? i mean, she can't consciously push, right? so does it take WAYYYYY longer for the baby to be born? or? sorry if i seem like a complete moron...

You may have to ask a nurse or doctor from that era.

I think just because a woman is not conscious does not mean her contractions are completely shut down. The contractions are controlled by a part of the brain that is primitive and automatic.

It is my understanding that most women were given sodium pentithal sp? or scopalimine sp? which is an amnesiac. Women would claw and bite and act like animals which is the reason they were tied down to the tables with restraints...

I think the nurses used alot of fundal pushing to assist the doctors. I am guessing of course.

[applejuice]

To: LJ congratulations on your UC and first birth! Well begun is really half done!!

[Mama Poot]

I know my maternal great grandmother had some of her kids at home, but the last two I believe were born in a hospital. My paternal grandmother gave birth to twins in 1955, they did the "twilight sleep" thing with her- basically she was conscious until the babes started crowning and then they knocked her out : My mom had me in a hospital, had a very small dose of demerol early on but that was it for drugs, I don't think she was cut either but I could be wrong because she told me she suffered for MONTHS from vaginal infection. My MIL had DH drug-free in the hospital. I guess I'm the pioneer ( in fact my grandma asked where "Pioneer Woman" was when she came to see me after ds2's home birth ) in my family for birth.

[USAmma]

Births are becoming more medicalized because of liability risks to the doctors.

My great-grandmother had her children at home.
My grandmother had hers in military hospitals and had twilight sleep for both of them.
My other grandmother had hers mostly at home (one in a trailer). Last one was in a hospital.
My mother had me and my brother in a hospital with no drugs b/c they couldn't afford them. I was a forceps baby. That was what she told me. She had her other two (16 and 19 years after I was born) also no drugs because they didn't work. She wanted epidurals. BTW she's an L&D nurse.

[Jimibell]

My older brother and sister and I were all born in hospitals (late 60s to early 70s) when my mom was under.....we are close in age so I, being the youngest, was practically flying out and so my mom told them when she arrived at the hospital, and was fully-dilated and ready to push, that she didn't need the drugs but they gave them to her anyway.....(my dad was off working somewhere for all 3 births)....
but my younger brother, born in 1977, arrived at home by UC! My mom had had enough of hospitals by then!!

Great thread btw...

[applejuice]

Births are becoming more medicalized because of liability risks to the doctors.

What about the health risks to the mother? What about the risks to the baby? Or does that even matter? Probably not.

[tamagotchi]

My grandmother had the twilight sleep for her births. I've read about it recently and it sounds downright horrible.

My mom birthed her babies naturally.

[townmouse]

My great-grandmother had her babies at home, on the farm (and CLW'ed). She was awesome.

My grandmother, I don't know. She never talked about the births. She was unique in so many ways in her generation, though, and Bf'ed all 5 of her children.

My mother had 5 children from '73 to '81, all natural, all BF'ed. She had no meds for #1, in a military hospital in Germany. She had meds for the next two (one was an emergency, the other just hurt more), then when my little brother was born they barely got to the hospital in time. She told Dad she was going to have the baby NOW and there were no doctors or nurses around. He said, "wait," she said, "don't tell me what to do" and Dad stepped out into the hallway, grabbed the first medical person he saw, and made them catch the baby. Later mom's doctor chewed her out for not coming in earlier :

After that experience, when she got preg. again 4 years later she was going to do a UC. in 1981! Not knowing anyone who even homebirthed! At the very last minute she changed her mind because she had 4 other children at home and no help with them. So she went to the hospital, another quick and easy birth, and she complained about the hospital bills for years because she said she knew she should have just stayed home.

My mom and Grandma were both supportive when I homebirthed my first baby in 1996. They thought the hospital was safer blah blah blah but they understood a woman's determination to do what she wants when having a baby.

[Apryl Srissa]

This is a interesting question. I know really very little about past generations births in my family. My mom has shared very little of hers, other than I know it was very medical. I really don't think she knows exactly what was done to her. I think she had an epidural, she remembers seeing me in a mirror. She had a fast labor, we lived in the foothills of the Sequoias, and not close to the hospital, so she was staying with my grandma. My grandma got up in the wee hours and found her getting ready for a bath, that her back hurt. My grandma dragged her into the hospital, by the time they got there, she was barely timed to get drugged . My grandmother hasn't talked about my moms birth, though I know she was VERY premie for 1955 there was no medical reason she should have survived and had issues all through her toddler/preschool years. My uncle was memorable though. She got to the hospital about to drop him, litterally. She was screaming for help, the nurses were just ignoring her. There was somesort of OB charity dinner that night no drs on site so they were humoring her, figuring she'd just wait till someone got there. Well, instead she really did give birth in the hall, and he came so fast that she tore a lot of her in sides. Needed surgury to stop the bleeding even. So she has no respect for obs, is very happy that I see a midwife that understands our families fast births. For me, I've had a hospital, with monitoring etc for what was supposed to be an inducement (3 weeks late) but he cam less than 30 min after my water break. Then my last two were at the birth center here, with midwives. They were great, but both times, I labored for weeks, and got stuck at a 2/3 and they checked me in to try to progress things. With Connor, she was checking me, and I just 'popped' and surprised her, 20 min there from water to done. and Hunter, we tried Pit, and had to stop it cuz he was even faster, once things started, 15 minutes. No slow labors in this family

My paternal great grandma was the youngest of 10, and born in 1900. There wasn't a hospital in that area, so I can safely assume she was at home. Her kids were in the '30s, so not sure, but I suspect home, since the only hospital that may have been open wasn't at all near by. Sure wish I could ask her. Her daughter died when my dad was young, so no idea about his birth.

[sevenkids]

My great grandmother (father's mother's mother) had home births for all 9 of her children in Quebec. She was still alive when my second was born (at home), and when I went to Boston to visit, she told me all about it, in French, which my grandmother tried to interpret. My poor grandmother had practically forgotten her French, and my 97 y/o ggm had totally forgotten her English.
My grandmother had her first 2 at home, but the next 3 in hospital.
On my Mom's side, her mother had her first at home, she was only 13, and unmarried, and her pregnancy was kept a secret. When my uncle was born, her parents pretended he was theirs. Then she had the next three in a hospital. When she had my mom, my grandfather didn't go to pick her up because she was so malnourished and he didn't have money to feed her. As long as she was in the hospital, he knew she'd be fed. I don't know the method of birth.

When my mom had me, she went out for pizza with my dad, her water broke, and by the time she got to the hospital she was feeling pressure. She practiced yoga back then (1965) and was doing her yoga breathing, so no-one believed her when she said she wanted to push. 20 minutes after she got there, a nurse finally agreed to check her, and when she lifted the sheet that was covering my mom, apparently I was staring back at her. She yelped, delivered the rest of me, and called a doctor.
When she had my brother, she made it as far as the hallway to the delivery ward.
My next 2 brothers were unplanned, unassisted home births. Midwife never got close to making it. My second brother was born 2 hours before midwife arrived, and they never even had time to call her for the third until after he was born.
My mom always said about her births, "I NEVER even had time to wash my feet first!"