My hairdresser will be having her first child shortly. She was upset to find out that it is likely to be by C-Section, as the baby is breech in such a way that it cannot be turned around. I know from my own experience that it’s hard to wrap your head around this being necessary for your health and the health of the baby.
I was upset also after having a long labor and delivery to end up with a C-Section. My maternal grandmother came by a few days later to see her great-grandchild and said, “Oh, I wish they’d had something like that when I had my baby. She wouldn’t have died.” Okayyyyy. . . after I picked up my jaw from the floor, I asked for the story and found out that my mother was not in fact the oldest. My grandmother had a full-term baby die during delivery (about 1931) because the baby was just too big to be delivered.
How terrible – to go through all those hours of work and effort and have to stay in labor to have a dead baby! It really put everything in perspective for me that I came home in good health as did my baby all those years ago. Having a C-Section was just a blip in the bigger game of life.
I was also dismayed to have had such a big baby – that did not run in my husband’s side, nor with my mother or my paternal grandmother. It turned out I didn’t ask the right grandmother about that – my maternal grandmother, barely 5 foot tall, had all big babies. She went on to have two more children, both of whom lived, giving her the children she wanted so badly.
Here’s my grandmother nearly thirty years ago holding her great-grandchild.
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A Daily Life 
June 3, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Yes, most of the advances in health care are wonderful. Thanks for sharing the story of how wonderful the option of a C-section can be vs. no option.
It my state a law was just passed that insurance companies must cover home births. Being just old enough to have heard stories of home births where outcomes were not always prefect I can only marvel that expectant parents would want that option. Especially since we have little hospitals with special home-like birthing rooms that allow midwifes to have privileges. That strikes this childless woman has a much better compromise.
June 4, 2011 at 11:54 pm
That’s one big fault with the Lamaze and hospital classes. They really don’t discuss that not everyone comes home with a perfect baby and help parents realize what the resources are when that happens. I was glad my grandmother shared her story with me – it did help me get over what happened and be glad for the outcome.
June 3, 2011 at 1:50 pm
My hairdresser is having a baby too. My first son was born with forceps. I didn’t think the doctor was going to be able to pull him out. He cracked my tailbone and I was in extreme pain and discomfort for quite a while. I think I would have been better off with a c- section.
June 4, 2011 at 11:50 pm
Ouch! That happened to a co-worker also and she had problems for years afterwards. My daughter’s tiny ears were pretty scabbed up from the forceps. I’m glad the doctor stopped when he did. I felt bad for my hairdresser though – she’d just found out the day she cut my hair and was pretty upset. By now I hope she has reconciled to it.