I want to begin by saying that I have to mention the birth of both my sons because, I feel like I would be cheating or putting value on one over the other. Generally, both were quite similar. My water never broke on its own for neither birth. I had what some would call a dry birth. Both son's birth went without incident, I did not have any complications and I did not use the epidural. I did receive some type of anesthesia through my I.V. Both births lasted about 5 or 6 hours. I had both births at a hospital and had good prenatal care throughout both pregnancies. Both children weighed 7lbs. and between 4 and 6 ounces. The only difference is with my oldest son I did not experience any type of morning sickness. With my youngest son I could not eat much of anything throughout the pregnancy and experienced some spotting also.
Furthermore, I looked at women from Central Africa to see what type of birthing experiences they share in their country. I found that almost all women have births at home. In the earlier years they would deliver in standing positions. The death rate of infants in central africa is high, I would assume because the lack of having a steralized medical environment and no access to quality prenatal care. I did not find a lot of similarities between my births and theirs. My personal birth was similar in that I was born at home with a mid-wife. I never asked why to this day. I do not know if my mother did not have time to get to a hospital, or if she chose to have me at home with the assistance of a mid-wife.
In conclusion, I do know that the birthing experience is a wonderful thing. I believe this is true for all women around the world. Regardless, of the differences in the way we deliver our children, we all share a common bond of going through an amazing event called birth. One thing that I learned form the comparison is that prenatal care during pregnancy is very important. Also, it is very important to the healthy development of children that they receive care after they are born. In Central Africa, a lot of children die either during the prengancy, or months after they have been delivered. I just wanted to use this quote by the Birthing Naturally website.
...women in Central Africa having 100 times the risk of dying compared to women in developed countries. Their children are at least 6 times more likely to die within the first year of life; 5 times more likely to die within the first week after birth; and 4 times as likely to not live long enough to be born.
At least 75% of these deaths are preventable with basic health care.
Vanderlaan. Virginia (2009).Birth in Central Africa.Training Skilled Birth Attendants. Retrieved from,
Michele
Hi Michele,
ReplyDeleteI think it would be interesting to find out why you were born at home. If it is not possible to ask your mother (or father) directly, maybe you have an aunt or someone else who was around at the time, who might know. Or maybe you could research the trends in your community, county, or state from the years around your birth, just to give you a general sense of the climate in which your mother was making her decisions.
What source did you use to look up birth experiences in central Africa? Would you recommend the source to others?
Tory
Absolutely, I went back and posted the website as I also added pertinent information from the website concerning births in Central Africa. Also, I had never thought about it until this assignment but, it has definitely peaked my curiosity. My mother died in a house-fire when I was nine years old. but, I will definitly ask my father.
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