February 9th, 2016

Birth Interview
For this weeks assignment, I interviewed my mom, Christine
Peeler, about her experience when she birthed me in October of 1995.
Leading up to the birth, she did attend childbirth classes that gave
recommendations on eating habits, behaviors, and breathing practices.
However, she also mentioned that she and my dad had a hard time
taking the classes seriously because the advice shared seemed
unnecessary or irrelevant. Overall, she did not put a large amount of
effort into preparing for her delivery experience.
My moms water broke on a Sunday morning around 7:30am. She
was 41 weeks along into her pregnancy, which means that she was
about one week overdue. She made her way to the hospital
immediately. Although she was not placed in a wheelchair, she was
quickly put in a gown, put on a scale, and given an enema. This enema
was particularly startling to my mom because she was not given any
choice and she also was not given any sort of prior notice before the
administration. She was not allowed to consume any foods other than
ice chips and ice pops during the surgery. She was given an IV drip, but
suggested that her resulting puffiness and fluid retention was one of
the most uncomfortable aspects of the entire labor experience. The
contractions were not speeding up and developing as quickly as they
would have liked, so she was encouraged to walk around the hospital.
Eventually, she was induced with Pitocin to help get the labor started.
She chose to have an epidural for the pain. My mom commented
numerous times about the length of the entire birthing process, which
culminated in 2 hours of pushing. During the actual delivery, my dad
was in the room and was an active participant in the process. My mom
recalls many details from the delivery process, remembering that the
doctors were adamant about scaling down her medicine so that she
would be able to function and be present mentally and physically to
help with the birth. While the experience was overall satisfactory, my
moms biggest complain is with the episiotomy performed by the
doctor who never notified her of what he was doing. She ended up
tearing very significantly during the delivery, which eventually led to
stiches and a great deal of pain for months afterwards.

I was handed to my mom immediately after I was born, with

everything all over me and before any sort of cleaning was done.
Someone cut my cord but she cannot quite remember if it was my dad
or if it was a doctor. After I was taken away for cleaning, I was brought
back to my mom to nurse. I was also given bottle fluids and was able
to spend most of that first night with her. After one additional night in
the hospital, my mom was discharged.