Comments on: Homebirth derailed: Jennifer walked to the hospital

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:23:56 +0000

Hi Jennifer,

I relate to this! I had a perfect picture of my home birth too…But two days into labor with baby still not appearing, I knew I could no longer do this without some help. So in the middle of a thunderstorm, my husband drove me to the hospital. I felt so frustrated. I was under the delusion that we can control birth when in reality all we can control is our reaction to the circumstances of birth. Learning to be flexible as we face birth is important. I was stubborn for too long and should have gone to the hospital earlier. At least baby turned out fine…but I put myself through more than I should have. Hooray for you and birth flexibility!

By: Stacia Reichelt

Stacia Reichelt — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:46:45 +0000

great story! and great attitude! Your daughter is exactly 1 year older than mine. My dd was born April 27th of this year (1 day after our 3 yr anniversary). I wanted a homebirth, but decided to do the hospital since they have a midwife program and would allow me an all-natural, drug free birth. Lo and behold, while pushing, she turned her head causing distress and couldn’t be turned back and I had to have an emergency c-section.

And just like you, I’m proud because even though nothing went according to plan, we are both healthy and she is absolutely perfect

By: Emily

Emily — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:39:04 +0000

great story!

By: Hospital Design

Hospital Design — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:36:49 +0000

The baby is so cute and I really love the name, so unique. Being a mom is very hard, lot of things to consider especially when pregnant. Every woman should be careful enough upon dealing to it.

By: Jennifer Pesetsky

Jennifer Pesetsky — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:04:01 +0000

Thanks for the comments everyone! And, thanks for sharing your own stories.

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:51:59 +0000

PPS With regard to what I shared about about my own birth story — I should also make clear that I wasn’t suicidal at all, they just had that expectation because of what all happened.

By: Alison

Alison — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:40:27 +0000

Great story and great attitude!!!

By: Shawna

Shawna — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:31:40 +0000

Thanks for sharing your birth story… I wanted a natural birth for the birth of my daughter… My doc was on board and perfectly fine with it. Fast forward to 37 weeks pregnant… I was diagnosed with preeclampsia.. and had to be induced… My plan went out the window.. I was having triplet and couplet contractions on the pitocin.. I caved and got an epidural which ended up being an accidental spinal, that was supposed to wear off in 1 hour… fast forward 4 hours later, the spinal was finally wearing off and I was trying to crawl off the bed in pain.. I wanted the epidural… They checked me I was 10 centimeters dialated… Sooo… I got my natural delivery that I wanted.. I just wished I would have been able to get up and move around…

I wanted to go to a birthing center for the next child… Lo and behold I am now 16 weeks pregnant with twins… sooo that plan is thrown out the window as well…

By: Kerily

Kerily — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:18:25 +0000

Every birth story that ends in a happy and healthy baby is a birth story to be proud of. Congratulations to you!

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:13:13 +0000

PS Thank you for letting me share my birth story with you.

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:12:46 +0000

Although I wasn’t able to have a homebirth planned as I had hoped (it was only after my girls were over a year old that I even heard of someone willing to do twins as a homebirth), I also had pre-eclampsia and ended up with my water breaking at 35 weeks. My birth was nothing like I had hoped, labored in bed on my back because they couldn’t monitor the babies if I moved, had to have pitocin and later an epidural (I could stand the pitocin, it was the fact that no one does a breach delivery any more that, just in case Twin B didn’t turn after Twin A was born), puking in the operating room because I couldn’t even have a single drop of water on my tongue while laboring strapped down (talk about understanding what hell is like!) while being coerced to push even though I wanted to breath the babies down, I didn’t get to see them at all for 15 hours after they were born because the hospital staff didn’t get their act together, not because it was medically necessary, etc., so much so that the head of OB (my office doc) later admitted they had me on suicide watch because what happened was so different than my birth plan…I wasn’t stuck on exact details, especially because twins throw a loop in all of it, but it was nothing like I had hoped for, at all.

Thank you, Jennifer, for sharing your story. I am guessing that, like me, since nothing went the way you hoped, it was hard to come to terms with. Star is beautiful and looks very full of life. Thank goodness for the wonderful outcomes to our stories.

By: katy

katy — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:23:41 +0000

Jennifer, thank you so much for sharing your story! I related a lot to the scramble to put together a bris on the 8th day while recovering from an unexpected cesarean.

Have you heard of ICAN (the international cesarean awareness network)? A local chapter near you might be a great place to share your story to empower other mothers and feel supported and heard. This organization helped me enormously in my healing process. Check out http://www.ican-online.org.