It undoubtedly takes immense courage and strength to adapt to the motherhood changes taking a toll on a woman during the pregnancy. The sheer love and utter joy for parenting start to influence a mother in a way that all these mental and physical changes appear to be nothing in front of the forthcoming bundle of happiness. I knew exactly how things were going to prevail by the last trimester since all those lessons on parenthood and managing labor pain and tiredness were inevitably affecting me as the date kept nearing hope not to go through caesarian. Out of all the steadfast tips and chapters, I read book by book, Belly Laughs and The Mama Natural Week almost caught me off guard when my water broke and ultimately the pre-labor membrane rupture alarmed me what’s next.
All was well and it was going very systematically for a woman like me who never failed to budge from what’s expected for a pregnant woman from taking up healthy nutrition to limiting caffeine that pinched my heart the most! But all that felt worth it because the insurmountable emotional toll that takes over you during the pregnancy surpasses all the other persistent and prolonged desires.
However, fate turned when I was rushed to the hospital and even though I was asked to push a couple of times, the baby did not appear to move inside me. My hands crumpling the sheets with excruciating pain and yet the abrupt strain and lingering complication did not get any better. It was beyond any question, exhausting and unexpected news to process for me lying there sweating buckets and gasping the whole time.
My ob-gyn and health experts alarmingly suggested performing a caesarian section on me to save the child from the complication sustaining. The news completely stunned me since the baby kept rolling and swishing throughout the last trimester. All these weeks, the last thing I expected was to go in for a C-section!
The emergency did not just compel me to sign the papers I wished not to earlier when I was given an option, but it also left me distressed in a single spell. While everyone was ruffled and decisive about the situation, there was no course of action for me to contemplate what is happening or what is going to happen.
Although I was informed that the procedure is going to be safe for both me and the baby, it didn’t materialize so well for me at first. The next thing I remember is convincing myself that by and large the procedure will be safe and everything would get better if I go in with the procedure itself.
While all those thoughts rushed in my mind and by the time my brain started to feel anxious, a dizzy haze took over and they dozed me off with anesthesia. I opened my eyes to a beeping sound while I was wired with multiple systems that I figured might be in a post-operative recovery room. The pain that took over was as unannounced as the news of going through an emergency caesarian section.
The day I gained my consciousness with the agonizing pain, post-operation made me realize that we are all sold a fairy tale and nobody wants to counter the reality! While scarring remains the end part of the story, many mothers like me have to undergo this method leaving us unprepared and compelled to undergo a caesarian section.
The birth classes I took during the initial phase of the third trimester barely touched what it is like to go through an emergency caesarian section. All I assumed was that I had been among that 60% section of women who gave birth naturally through the vaginal delivery method. For all its worth, I was ultimately blessed with a baby girl who came crying into this world with innumerable dreams and spark in her eyes.
A mother sets the world aside to go through all pain and grief to keep her child safe just like how it was coiled in the womb. However, some predicaments might occur that completely shake her world and flips it upside down. This one experience of emergency c-section adheres to exactly that.
While there are several books, inspiring stories, and birthing classes to take lessons from, very few people consider talking about an impromptu C-section. Nobody wants to educate the couple on how to react and decide over a situation like what I faced. While all these classes talk just about dilation, how and when to push, mothers end up setting their mind on one thing. They are completely oblivious to the probable complications in the labor room.
Often for the remaining 30%-40% of women in the society, labor gets stalled and eventually, it turns into an unplanned C-section. The unpreparedness of a mother leaves her terrified and frantic at the most sensitive and fragile state. This might even spur the mother to cast off her plans of conceiving further.
Women who have accumulated strength and battled upfront with the sudden need for an emergency caesarian section intimidates them to think that only if the consultations and birthing classes they took this whole time prepared women for a potential C-section preparation guide, the experience could’ve been less traumatic.
Somehow, ultimately when I held my baby in the arms, all that anxiety and distress was forgotten and all I could focus on was the enlightening and happy journey I would quest in with my little angel. It need not necessarily be the typical TV scene of birthing a child.
Given the pain and trauma faced by mothers, women should not shy away from sharing the reality of an emergency C-section to help other mothers prepare themselves mentally.
We alarmingly need to reduce the stigma and correct misconceptions of caesarian sections. While mothers are left with a scar, each scar reminds a mother about the love she shares with her child. Motherhood is ultimately a journey to celebrate with joy and affection.