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Deanna's Birth

Hi my name is Jennifer Davis and my daughter was born about a year ago and I
still have very bitter feelings about my labor and childbirth experience.

I was in the military and was being seen by obgyns at the national naval
medical center in bethesda MD. When I was around thirty weeks pregnant my
doctors diagnosed me with hypertension and ordered me to bed for the rest of
my pregnancy. I also had to go to the hospital twice a week for non-stress
tests. when I was thirty-six weeks my doctor decided to diagnose me with
pre-eclampsia and induce labor. I still hadn't finished my childbirth
education classes but my doctor assured me that everything would be fine ( I
should add here that I never saw the same doctor twice so this one was one I
hadn't seen before ). The first thing that happened was I was put on magnisum
sulfate which made me real  hot and after about an hour I felt almost like I
was hung over. I wasn't allowed to get out of bed at all and in an attempt to
keep my BP down I was forced to lie on my right side for the entire labor ( I
know the left side is supposed to keep the blood flowing easier, why the
right side worked I don't know). Finally I asked for an epidural (I didn't
want one but there was little I could do to relieve the pain on my own since
I wasn't allowed to move at all) and immediatly after it was administered
Deanna was ready to be born, I had no idea that I was as far along as I was
and if I had known I would have declined to pain medication. When Deanna was
born I was given an episiotomy which I didn't want and after holding her for
five minutes she was taken away from me for the next twenty four hours (for
observation) and I was kept on the magnisum sulfate.

Deanna is almost twelve months old now and even thought there aren't any
plans for another baby yet I have very definate ideas about what I want and I
plan to start preparing for the kind of care and delivery I would like to
have as soon as I get pregnant again. I would recommend to anyone not to wait
to make your plans I kept thinking I still had a few more weeks to talk to my
regular doctor about a birth plan but in the end there was no time and all of
my decisions were taken away from me.

Jennifer Davis