I had my first child in the suburbs of Atlanta when she was 12 days overdue. My husband dropped me off at a hospital door and went to park the car. When I got to the door, it was locked, and I had a contraction by myself in the parking lot in front of this locked door.
When my husband joined me, we had to walk around to find a door that
was actually open. When we finally got inside and found a desk that said
"admissions," it was empty. No one ever came to the desk, so we
set
about to try to find anyone at all.
After actually finding someone, we were directed to the wrong floor for
Labor and Delivery. Once everything was straightened out and we found our
way to the right place and got a room, I was told that I might not be in
labor, and that they would "wait and see" for a while before I
could actually check in. Well, I had been in labor for 12 hours at that
point, but I couldn't tell them any differently.
Once determined to be in labor (brilliant!) my bottle of water was taken
away, and I was told that I was being "too loud" during the
contractions. "I can hear you all the way across the hall!" the
nurse told me. Trying to be quiet while enduring back labor wasn't easy. I
waited another hour or so, and then asked for an epidural.
Anyone who has had one knows what THAT is like. I felt the needle
sliding into my spine and screamed in pain. I was then examined by a
doctor I had never seen before, and felt water coming out of me. "Did
you just break my water?" I asked. He said he had. He had not asked
first, and I don't know that he would have even told me he had done it.
The epidural never took effect that well, and I was able to feel quite a
lot.
I spent the night in the hospital, during which time the epidural wore off
twice. I was redosed both times and told that if it wore off again they
would take it out and reinsert it. I told them in no uncertain terms that
no, I didn't think that they would. The next afternoon it was
time to push. As I was pushing, the epidural wore off on one side, and I
begged for another redose. The anesthesiologist refused. I demanded it and
said a lot of things to him that I can't remember now- but he did
redose it. There were more than 20 people people in the room as I was
pushing. I only knew that one was a doctor and one was a midwife. None of
the other people ever introduced themselves or gave any indication of who
they were. I still don't know who those people were.
When I was completely numb and pushing, the midwife let go of my leg,
and it fell off the table- almost taking me with it over the side. A few
minutes later the doctor walked away and was talking to some of the people
in
the room. I asked over and over if I should be pushing, but she never
answered.
After two hours of pushing, including 30 minutes of forceps, the doctor
told me I would need a cesarean, and I was wheeled to the operating room.
They gave the consent form to my husband to sign, as if I suddenly
was incompetent.
When the baby was taken out, she was not showed to me, and I didn't see
her for about 10 or 15 minutes, when I was given a glimpse of her, all
wrapped up in a blanket with only her face showing. She was then taken
away and my husband was made to leave. With him gone, I grew more and more
afraid, and did not think that I was breathing. I was told that the
epidural had numbed me up to my chest, and I just couldn't feel myself
breathing, but I didn't believe. I then started shaking violently, I found
out later it was from the high epidural dose. The doctor put me to sleep.
I woke up two hours later, and got to see the baby, but I was still too
weak to hold her.
The next day the doctor that "delivered" her came to my room to
ask me if I would like the baby circumcized.
Lizz
lizz@hsv.com
Inside Mother
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