The Birth of My Grandson

First, I would like to share my thoughts on the birth of my first grandchild. On December 28, 2010, my daughter gave birth to her son, Carson. That was one of the happiest days of my life. Before I explain her birthing experience, I will tell you how her pregnancy was. During her first trimester, she was sick everyday. She lost 7 lbs because she wasn't eating a lot because of the nausea. She couldn't deal with smells because they would make her sick. After that first trimester, she was fine up until her 8th month. During her 8th month, she got preeclampsia which put her in the hospital because her blood pressure was elevated, liver enzymes were abnormal and she had severe swelling in her feet and legs. She stayed in the hospital for 16 days until she gave birth. On Christmas Day, we all were in the hospital wating on his arrival. Her husband and I took her for a ride in the wheel chair around the hospital just so she didn't have to stay in the room on Christmas day. She wanted to be home for Christmas but I explained to her that the weather was bad and she lived far from the hospital so if something happened at home, that wouldn't have been good. She listened and tried to make the best of it. The doctors and nurses were so sweet and gave her whatever she needed. They even brought her a laptop that she had the entire time that she was there. I had never heard of that before. They also brought her a DVD in her room so she was getting spoiled while she was in there even though she was on a low carbs diet so her food was not so tasty at times.

The day of her delivery, she was taken down to labor and delivery and was prepared to deliver. At 12:00 noon, she was given Petocin, then at 4:00 pm, her doctor broke her water. She delivered my grandson at 1:14 am. Her epidural kept wearing off and I was feeling so bad for her. I even told her I wish that I could do it for her. It was hard as a mom watching your daughter in pain and knowing that you can't do anything about it. She says now, from what she had to go through, she doesn't want to experience that again. From all of that, my adorable, healthy grandson came and I'm just loving him and spoiling him rotten. We talk on the phone and she puts him on speaker phone and just talks to me and I talk back to him. When he comes to my house, he lights up the house with his presence.

One of the questions was what do I think of births occuring at home. With my daughter being in the situation she was in, I would want her to be at a hospital because they are very equipped for any complications that could occur. The main reason why she chose the hospital that she chose was if there would've been any complications, they would get the care they needed at that location.

Another question was to choose a region of the world or a country, other than the U.S., and find out how births happen there. The region I chose was Asia. This is what I learned when I did research on Asian women and childbirth. According to the Health Day News, Asian women experience less labor pain than other women, say US Researchers. "Labor progress and pain are influenced by many different factors but are difficult to study because conditions during labor are continually changing," Dr. Pamela Flood, of the anesthesia department at Columbia University, said in a news release from the American Society of Anesthesiologists. "We created mathematical models to assess labor progression and pain in 500 women having their first babies," Flood explained. "This technique has the benefit of allowing researchers to assess the labor experience for individual women, in addition to the responses of a group as is seen in this study. Ideally, in the future we can use this model to predict when and if a woman will be able to deliver vaginally." The researchers studied 100 sequential deliveries from each of five ethnic groups -- Asian, Hispanic, black, white and other -- and found significant associations between ethnicity, labor progress and labor pain. Asian women had slower active labor and reported less pain than women of other ethnicities. The researchers also found that women who weighed more generally had slower active labor. The study is in the November issue of Anesthesiology. "The ability to predict labor pain would be helpful to assist in the development of specific coping mechanisms during labor, helping each woman better know what to expect," Flood said. "More accurate expectations about labor pain and progress will help new mothers and their doctors to plan their treatment."

What other stressors that surround birth might influence a child’s development? Taking drugs, stressing about jobs, finances, etc, could influence a child's development in many ways.

What kinds of support and/or intervention surrounding a child’s birth may foster healthy development? Support from the spouse, family members and friends play a big support role. Her husband and I were very supportive to whatever she needed and that made her not be stressed about anything. She had great friends and cousins to come over and cook for them after the birth of their son. There were programs that the hospital offered that provided healthy development but she didn't go because she had a lot of support without the services that were offered.

References:

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/pain/articles/2009/10/30/asians-seem-to-suffer-less-during-childbirth