Me and mom: the early days
My mom (aka joey125) has told me about my birth, her first birth story, but I wanted to ask her more now that I am going to have my first babies in December.
It's incredible to hear of what she went through in 1972.
Here's my mom's story...
Before I got pregnant, one doctor told me I probably could not have children, since my uterus was too small. When I was ready to give birth, I told one of the nurses what the doctor said and she said, "Well your uterus sure did grow."
I had very little morning sickness during the pregnancy, just the smell of mustard in the morning made me sick. My husband worked nights and ate a sandwich when he came home and always left the knife in the sink...with the mustard on it!
I remember when I first told him I was pregnant. I was crying, you know, happy tears. He was so thrilled -- he had to tell everyone. I liked being pregnant -- it felt good and the end result is just fabulous.
Mom and me today
Michele's due date was October 26th -- that came and went. A few days later the doctor told me to go to the hospital since I was late -- they wanted to induce me on Halloween. I didn't want her to be born on that day, so I told them I'd be back in a few days. I went back on November 2nd.
I was in labor for about six hours at Interboro Hospital in East New York, Brooklyn. In the middle of it all, they took me to X-ray since I was not dialating. I could hear the technicians saying that the baby was bigger than the mother. Needless to say, I was scared sh@&! The nurse I had was not very compassionate.
Eventually, they broke my water with what I thought was a big knitting needle, they gave me Sodium Pentothal, which if you ask me does nothing. They also gave me Ether at the end, which was also ridiculous since she was already coming out.
I gained a total of 30 pounds. Michele was born at 4:45pm on November 2, 1972. She was 7 pounds 11 ounces and I think 21 inches long.
Things have improved with regards to childbirth now -- women have become more informed and since I had Jen (my younger daughter) naturally I can say it was much less scary.
Thanks mom for sharing the details with CafeMom!
It's amazing how far we've come isn't it?
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Comments 11
Wow! That is crazy! They do so much to just make you feel better now! They were worried about the size of my daughter because they thought she was going to be over ten pounds! The u/s doctor wanted me to have a C-section and my doctor told me not to stress about it. If she were too big, she would not move down into the birth canal and THEN we would do a c-section. She was awesome! She always knew just what to say to make me feel better. I guess we are lucky we had kids now and not back then!
I love hearing my mom's birth stories for me and my older brothers! I'm the youngest and was born in 1970. My mom wanted a daughter soooooooo badly after messing up with...er...I mean, having my older brothers! Her doctor knew it and when I came out he held me up to her bottom-first so she couldn't see and taunted her with what sex I was. My mom apparently wasn't in a joking mood. Go figure?
The indignities my mom had to suffer through to have us were pretty amazing, though. They shaved her, which is nothing to us now (since mostly we all took care of that ourselves!), but think of how mortifying that must've been back then? The dreaded enema is what I feared most, but now that's a thing of the past, too.
The other thing my mom told me is that she absolutely refused to have any drugs with my middle brother, but the doctors gave them to her anyway. To this day she's still angry as hell over it, and I can't say I blame her a bit!
My mom had all 3 of us with no drugs, and to this day, she says she doesn't know why she didn't go ahead and get them. lol
I heard about the whole routine "shave and enema" when I was pregnant with DD (my first) and I was terrified. I mean shaving I did myself, but an enema?! I was relieved to find out it wasn't common practice anymore!
The only thing that sounds different is the medicine names and the X ray. Other than that, it sounds pretty similar to most birth stories, other than the personal pieces (morning sickness, weight gain, dates, being told one's infertile...).
I was born in '73 so not much later than this story. My mom was young, 18, when she had me. Being something of a hippie she wanted to have me without drugs and breastfeed. When she went into labor and went to the hospital it was about 9 pm. Her doc was apparently upset that he had to go in, it interupted his poker game. He kept trying to push drugs on her, bully her into it. I am proud that she stood her ground on it and as she trasitioned into the final stages they once again they tried to knock her out as was common in that time. And then he wanted to use the forceps on me when she wouldn't let them put her out. Once again she stood her ground.
After my birth she said the nurses treated her rude because she wanted to nurse, they made her swab her nipples with alcohol before letting her nurse! Imagine how that felt for her and tasted for me!
Thank goodness times have changed!
I was born in 78 and am the oldest, I was the first baby my moms doctor had delivered.......it didn't go well for my mom! She almost bled to death. My dad told me that he could see the blood rushing out and that the doctor just looked scared shitless! I am so happy things have changed! I had great excperiances with both of my births and wonderful nurses to help me with everything! Thank you Mom! =)
I'm happy to have my mom's handwritten account of my birth. I found it in a box of papers/school stuff after my mom died in 2000. I have no way of asking her about those things anymore so it's nice to have (she was 51 and I was 23 when she died just 7 weeks after I had my oldest daughter).
My birth story was pretty interesting. I was due Dec. 8, 1976 but the day came and went with no sign of labor. The story starts Dec. 12 when my mom spent the day out with her friend (presumably drinking...was common back then and her friend was also pregnant). It wasn't until around 1 or 2am that she started feeling contractions. My dad had to dig the car out of the snow and rush her to the hospital.
I was almost born in the parking lot. They got there at like 3:40am an dI was born at 4:20. My dad was still filling out the paper work and got to see me as I was wheeled to the nicu. I was 5lbs 14oz at 1 week overdue (smoking is bad for pregnancy).
My grandmother was told that she had a tumor and to prepair for the worse. My grandmother told the docter she was pretty sure she was pregnant. The doctor would not listen to her and told her that the tumor was growing quickly. Needless to say grandma went into labor and had my mom in the bathroom of their house. No tumor. Just a baby.
I love reading these! Thanks for sharing!
I was born in 1987 and I made my mother miserable. She was hospitalized for quite a while during the pregnancy. She had to have lots of medicines because she couldnt eat or drink. I am the youngest and the hardest pregnancy!