My birth story with my first son sounds like it should have been traumatic: around 24 hours of labor, 5.5 hours of pushing, posterior baby (epidural was insufficient to block out the resulting back pain), failed vacuum extraction, ending in cesarean. To be honest, it really wasn't. I want to kick myself for how stupid I was back then, and how I so blindly trusted people who know nothing about the birth process at all, but that's another story.
I didn't know anything about birth either. I'd read What to Expect When You're Expecting, but that's all. I didn't even attend the hospital's How to be a Good Patient class. I'm not going to blame myself for that lack of education either. I was taught I could trust my doctor to tell me any pertinent information. That's what our culture believes right now. I won't fault anyone for trusting someone too much.
But even though I didn't know anything, there were some things that even then felt absolutely WRONG! After everything was over and I was recovering well from surgery, I was mad! Here's why:
I was freaking STARVING! They only let me have flavored ice chips the whole time I was laboring there (about 16 hours), and before that all I'd eaten was a single pudding cup since dinner the day before. Then when they announced I would have surgery (notice I said "announced" not "recommended" or "asked"), they wouldn't even let me have water! So I went about 36 hours without any food (minus the pudding cup). In the morning I was hoping for a decent meal, and what to they bring me? Chicken broth! That's ALL! What the crap! I felt like I had just run a marathon and then been hit by a truck at the finish line. The least they could have done is bring me a stupid bowl of Corn Flakes. It was another full 24 hours before they let me eat anything more solid than jello. I think my mom may have sneaked me a granola bar somewhere in there, but my point still stands. Why exactly are we starving women in maternity wards?
I know the whole "just in case" anesthesia argument, and frankly, I think it's totally invalid. Sure, if someone KNOWS they're going to have surgery, tell them not to eat or drink. That's fine. But I'm willing to bet that at least some of the time, laboring women are given surgery for reasons directly related to not having eaten or drunk anything in labor. Rather than give a blanket denial of nutrients to someone doing something physically taxing, instead provide a list of the top ten worst foods to eat in case of impatient doct--oh, I mean surgery. I understand peanuts are especially bad, for instance.
The other thing that bothered me was sleep. I got about 3 hours of sleep in early labor, then I couldn't anymore. When I went to the hospital and got an epidural, I managed to catch a little bit of sleep here and there, but nothing really to speak of. So after surgery, I figured I'd finally have a chance to sleep. I took advantage of the nursery for this reason. But for some reason, the nurses felt the need to wake me up every 15 minutes THE ENTIRE NIGHT! I was even more pissed about that than my measly broth breakfast. Is that REALLY necessary? Really? Really?! I'm hooked up to monitors, so they knew I wasn't dead.
Conclusion? Even people having babies need to eat and sleep. I knew that even when I knew absolutely nothing about birth. So why didn't the hospital staff get it?
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