Childbirth In Your Life and Around the World

The birth of my son was one that was overly planned, yet had more complications than any of my others. We had begun at a military hospital and were told we were due mid-April. When my husband left we moved home to be closer to family for help with the year he would be gone and my civilian OB was amazing and seemed to see a normal pregnancy. With my husband being on a short tour in South Korea with the US Air Force and the hospital was extremely accommodating to be able to have him “there” with us. I had to have a C-section due to multiple issues from my prior child births. The surgery went as planned with the planned complications that could arise and did on my part, yet the unexpected happened with my son. He was 39 weeks gestational according to scans and measurements taken throughout the pregnancy.

When he was born he cried and was a normal baby except for oxygen issues. After almost thirty hours he began to have many issues. The O2 levels were low, he was refusing to nurse, as well as ceased crying and noise. My dad was the first to alert me that something could be wrong. I alerted a nurse in the middle of the night before we were to discharge that he had begun to vomit. The next morning a man I will never forget finally was able to help my son. Dr. Breckner found the underdeveloped lungs and the pneumonia. He was fighting to breath and live. Dr. Breckner had found out what was wrong we were expedited to the NICU around an hour and a half from my other two children, who were with both sets of grandparents, and my own doctor.

Once arriving the doctors discovered he was in fact closer to around maybe 35-36 weeks and had spontaneous pneumothoraxes these were really rare and very difficult to find in what should have possibly been a term baby. Dr. Breckner saved my son and gave him the chance to fight and live a mostly normal life. We have had other small complications to deal with, but all is managed and he is a normal energetic 18 months old and we are extremely grateful for modern medicine.

I have many friends who are from the Philippines and have heard stories of their medical experiences over there. I choose to dig deeper into what they experience as a normal childbirth experience. After reading on the differences I can see why many of the people I know where grateful to birth in the United States. Many cannot have the proper medical care throughout their pregnancy and at child birth. Many births are not done with medical staff present or postnatal care for mom or immediate care for the baby. Had this been the case for my son we would have lost him this alone makes me feel grateful for the medical team we had and the tools they had.

Many of the women who have care use mid wives as do many women in the U.S. As I read I had no idea how under nourished and low the sanitation many of the people in the Philippines were. The hygiene and nutrition is a main factor to the loss of many women and infants at birth or within the first month after birth. I feel blessed even with the obstacles we had to overcome that we were where we were and had the care throughout the pregnancy and following the birth that we did.

Philippine Statistic Authority. https://psa.gov.ph/content/fetal-deaths-2011.

UNICEF-Philippines. http://www.unicef.org/philippines/mediacentre_10139.html.