Birth Stories
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.

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