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This is a bonus episode of What Was That Like.
If this were a regular episode, you’d be hearing someone telling a story of how they survived a mass shooting, or when they got attacked by a grizzly bear, or that time they won $100,000 on Wheel of Fortune. We have guests on with all kinds of crazy stories, and they tell exactly what happened, first hand.
But this episode is different. A while back, I asked my listeners to send in their stories about a specific topic: childbirth. What happened, what went right, and in some cases, what went wrong. This is real life, and not every story has a happy ending.
I really enjoyed hearing these stories, and to those who sent one in, thank you.
And if you have a story about something unusual that’s happened to you, not necessarily related to childbirth, but anything unusual or interesting, hang around and at the end I’ll tell you how we might be able to use that here on the podcast in a future episode.
Here is Sylvia’s story about her experience with Postpartum Psychosis:
My story starts after the birth of our first child.
I developed a rare condition called Postpartum Psychosis which distorted my mind. This illness affects one to two women out of every 1000 births.
After a very long day and night I gave birth to a healthy very big baby. Soon (maybe 5 days later), the only thing on my mind was finding the Wizard of Oz.
I convinced myself that I was Dorothy. My new-born son was Toto. Every day, my mission was to cast all the colourful characters that lived in Kansas and Oz. The cast changed daily, determined by my visitor’s personality and the colours they were wearing.
My overdriven mind was constantly re-arranging characters and scenes which led to many sleepless nights. I’d finally cast most of my main players like the Scarecrow, the Brave Lion, the Tin Man. I was going to rest now. But I still had to go to Oz. I also needed to find the red sparkly slippers to get Toto and me home.
Finally, I arrived home with my new-born son. While my husband and seven-day old baby slept, I tried to rest and switch my brain off but every sound from a microwave oven, cell phone, creaky floors, barking dogs were all cues that would lead me closer to the Wizard of Oz and my red slippers.
My husband realised something wasn’t quite right with me. The Community Nurse did a home visit to check on our new baby. The nurse confirmed that something wasn’t right with me. I was too elevated. It was suggested I should see my doctor to arrange a visit to a psychiatrist.
Soon after, I found myself sitting in this psychiatrist bleak, ugly stale office. To diagnose me, he quizzed on mathematics. The psychiatrist prescribed medication for 5 days to help my mind switch off and whatever I was experiencing would disappear.
These drugs REALLY knocked me out. I was now officially a mum zombie.
After 5 days, I truly thought I was cured!! To celebrate, my husband was going to drive me to see my friend, but in reality we were driving to the public hospital. I ran away when we arrived. My husband chased me down and dragged me into the emergency department which made the Triage Nurse get the security guards. I remember my husband screaming at the Triage Nurse:
“She’s not a drug addict, she’s just had a baby – someone help her!”
I tried to convince nurses and doctors, I was having a great time searching for the Wizard of Oz and I didn’t need to be locked up. In reality, I needed to be heavily medicated again and it was then admitted to the psych ward of this hospital, without Toto.
I don’t remember how many nights I stayed at this hospital, but I knew that I missed my son and husband. I just wanted to go home. I wanted to start our lives together. I convinced myself, I could make my way home, if I do things properly in the right order, like floss my teeth, exercise daily, make the bed, talk, and save people and eat well. This hospital didn’t offer healthy choices and it had a semi outdoor exercise, caged area, you could barely see the outside world – it was so prison like. I was trapped and felt like I never going to go home.
My brilliant, big sister found a baby and mother hospital which was located about 1.5 hours away from where we lived. It housed 8 mums and their babies. It was the only one in our state. I was admitted and this is where I was first diagnosed Post Natal Psychosis. I’d convinced myself that it would be okay because I was closer to Oz and I could take Toto with me.
I wanted to party when I first arrived at this new hospital. New mums were not as euphoric, and I couldn’t relate to them at all. I met mothers who were struggling after childbirth. One was on suicide watch, one played a jingle over and over in her head, one had to have ECT and one who couldn’t bring herself to hold her baby. I befriended them all because I could to fix them all. I spoke my mind, became irreverent and spent money without a care. I bought them all a pizza, each! To fix them!
Doctors experimented with various medications to dampen my elevated state. Some drugs did nothing, some drugs made me feel so sick and some were so strong that I couldn’t sit up or speak. Doctors settled on a medication that heavily sedated me. I slept a lot while the nurses looked after my baby.
I found a wonderful Psychiatrist. She wore my colours and enjoyed listening to my plan to visit the Wizard of Oz. I decided she could be cast as Good Witch Glenda. She seemed to appreciate this. She was quirky. I spent a lot of time talking about losing my dad, not grieving properly, not saying a proper good-bye. She really understood me. I was in good hands.
I was beginning to accept holistic therapy. I practised mindfulness, which I loathed then (I love now) as well as healthy eating, cognitive therapy, resting, art therapy, proper medication and being kind to each other and ourselves. This is was the way forward for me.
My new mission now was to run for Government to change women’s health. I wrote hundreds of letters to government and prepared many speeches for I when I going to be elected. I was going to win for sure!
My son and I stayed on at the hospital for over four months. I had put my amazing husband, our families, and our friends through a type of hell that I was totally oblivious to.
We were given a 50% chance of Postpartum Psychosis reoccurring with another pregnancy. We took the gamble and decided to try again for a baby.
My beautiful baby was born six weeks early, after a long, horrific pregnancy. My baby was very tiny and had to learn how to thrive, breathe and eat at the same time and was placed in ICU. I felt helpless and useless, so I was going to predict all the winning lottery tickets, while the nurses helped my baby thrive. I played lotto over and over; not because I wanted to be rich, but because I wanted all my friends and family to be debt free.
Five days later, I was getting sick again. My husband knew. I was in denial as I thought I just needed sunshine and a healthy baby to take home. We fought about it a lot. I lost the fight. When my baby was well and thriving, our bags were packed as the private hospital and my psychiatrist were ready. My hospital bed was pre booked. Credit cards were put away.
I was back at the mum and baby hospital with my beautiful daughter. My wonderful family looked after my son. My job was to rest. I was angry a lot. How could I have gotten sick again when everything was in place? I wanted to be home with my beautiful husband and my pigeon pair children.
It took a long time to accept my diagnosis.
I slowly recovered again. We survived again. Thanks to my wonderful supportive husband and amazing family including my friends that are just like family. My big sister was incredible, and my little sister who kept me going when I was “locked up”, by phoning every day, telling me how much she missed and loved me. My beautiful, healthy daughter and I were in hospital for over 3 months.
It took almost 2 years, from the birth of my daughter, to become medication free and I’ve made a full recovery.
I enjoy healthy eating, plenty of exercise and being kind to myself.
At times I get emotional when I think about what we went through. Sometimes we can laugh, about trying to save people with pizza, wanting to run for government, lotto winning tickets, outlandish and useless on-line shopping purchases, and how many red slippers I own.
I have enormous appreciation for proper post-natal care and The Wizard of Oz.
That’s our story.
Yours Truly,
Dorothy/Sylvia from Oz/Australia.
Episode transcript (download transcript PDF)
Hey, this is Scott, the host of the show, and this is a bonus episode.
If this were a regular episode, you’d be hearing someone telling a story of how they survived a mass shooting, or when they got attacked by a grizzly bear, or that time they won $100,000 on Wheel of Fortune. We have guests with all kinds of crazy stories, and they tell exactly what happened, first hand.
But this episode is different. A while back, I asked my listeners to send in their stories about a specific topic: childbirth. What happened, what went right, and in some cases, what went wrong. This is real life, and not every story has a happy ending.
I also wanted to let you know about a special story that I got from Sylvia in Australia, about her experience with Postpartum Psychosis. This is a very unusual story. Sylvia recorded it, but there was an issue with the audio so I couldn’t include it in the actual podcast. However – you can read it in the show notes for this episode, at WhatWasThatLike.com/91.
I really enjoyed hearing these stories, and to those who sent one in, thank you.
And if you have a story about something unusual that’s happened to you, not necessarily related to childbirth, but anything unusual or interesting, hang around and at the end I’ll tell you how we might be able to use that here on the podcast in a future episode.
And now, let’s hear about those babies.
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Christy
Hi Scott, this is Christy from Mississippi. I have an interesting childbirth story that I wanted to share. On January 20, 1997 I was pregnant with my second child, a daughter. I woke up around 4:20 a.m. with contractions about 5 minutes apart. My husband and I left shortly after 4:30 a.m. and dropped off our 2 year old son at the babysitters. We headed south for the 45 minute drive to the hospital. At this time my contractions were 4 minutes apart, but soon after that they started getting closer and a little bit stronger, but I still wasn’t too alarmed. I told my husband to call our parents and let them know that we were on our way, but to tell them not to rush because it would be awhile. However my daughter had other plans.
We were about 15 minutes from the hospital when my water broke. I could tell that my daughter would be born very soon. My husband kept driving and was about to pass under an interstate when the time had come. I could feel the baby starting to come out. My husband pulled over and he called the highway patrol from the car phone and was immediately connected to the ambulance service dispatcher. By the time the ambulance arrived, my baby was here. Her father wrapped her in his leather jacket because it was a very cold night.
After a quick ride in the ambulance we arrived at the hospital. Thankfully everyone was healthy and we had quite a story to tell. Not only did we get an applause from the doctor and the staff as we were entering the hospital, but 2 local newspapers came and interviewed us about the experience. None of our family made it in time to see the birth and actually had no idea that she had been born in the car, until a baby with our last name was brought into the nursery. It was definitely a crazy experience that I would not recommend to anyone else. Thanks Scott for letting me share.
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Caller
I’m a mother of 2, I have one girl and one boy. There is a huge age difference- I had some fertility issues -but I had my baby. My daughter was 13 at the time my son was born. It’s been 3 years now since I had him. During my pregnancy, I was induced at 41 weeks because I was measuring at 35 weeks. We figured he’d be rather small. The doctor asked how big my daughter was for comparison and I said, “6 pounds, 13 ounces, 21 inches long.” She was a pretty easy labor. I had her within 4 hours with no drugs or medication; it was pretty easy. With my son I ended up being in labor for 13 hours and he shocked us all when he came out. He was 8 pounds, 15 ounces, and 22.5 inches long. The pain was rather unbearable, I ended up having to get 2 epidurals, and both times it only numbed my right side.
During my labor I started to have flu-like symptoms and by the end of my labor I had low grade fever. I ended up testing positive for the flu, but luckily because I had the flu shot my baby never contracted it. The doctor said that the baby took my immune system with him and that flu shot protected the both of us. I nursed my son for 3 weeks and had to wear a facemask while handling him. The hardest part of all of it was that I couldn’t kiss my baby. I cannot express how grateful and fortunate I was to have my husband step up and be so supportive and care for me and my son when I just couldn’t. Now he’s healthy, and life goes on, and here we are today.
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Caitlin
My name is Caitlin and I had a home birth for my second son in January of 2012. It didn’t quite go as planned. Originally we had an option of about 2 midwives in our entire side of the state that would do a home birth. The first one I chose ended up being a little too out there for me. Even though this was during the height of my “crunchy” phase as a mom and person. So we ended up going with the second one which was a midwife who was also an RN, a nurse midwife. I really trusted her so everything was going great. She often delivered Amish babies, so she was fine with cash but also admitted to receiving beef from cattle for payment. We did not have any cattle and lived in the city.
Meanwhile, I was 40 weeks and was at my due date. The night before our son was born, I was in tears because I felt like I was never going to have this baby, ever. The next morning- not even it was 2:30 a.m. -I woke up and was in full blown labor. From start to finish it was 4.5 hours. He came very fast and furious and things started right away. Yet my husband thought this was a good time to maybe go back to sleep while I bounced around on a yoga ball in our living room. After a couple hours of that, I essentially kicked him and told him it was time. By that point it was way too close to time. So he called his mother, who lived about a mile from us, and she is a seasoned labor and delivery nurse and has been for many years. She rushed over to take our oldest son over to a neighbor’s house, but also stuck around because she noticed things were progressing very quickly. So as she stayed with us while we waited for the midwife, I ended up just as a runaway train. It was out of control and I was feeling ready to have that baby quickly. I was on all fours, mooing like a cow in my tiny little bathroom, stuck between the toilet and the shower. My mother-in-law was humming away in the kitchen enjoying herself while she handwashes dishes and dries them, brews coffee, and yells out to me how I’m, “just doing fine honey!” I wasn’t pleased. I did not care for the scent of coffee so I hollered about that and started screaming, “Who the fuck is making coffee!” It was her.
As I moo away, my husband is calling the midwife and saying, “It’s happening now! Something’s happening.” She said, “Don’t worry honey, I’ve talked many fathers through delivering their own babies before. It’s gonna be fine.” He said, “Well then call one of them. I am not equipped for this.” Meanwhile I am moving my way towards my birthing tub, which was also a children’s kiddy pool sort of deal. It was something I ordered from Texas online with my birth kit. It was a small swimming school you would normally put in your driveway, this time it was in our living room. It was covered in really happy sea creatures, smiling sharks, some jellyfish; they were there only to serve as an anger focal point for me later. My husband was running around the house, which by the way we prepped for this for a long time and somehow he still thought the water heater wasn’t the correct temperature. He threw on a tool belt for some dumb reason, and was trying to hook up a garden hose to the kitchen sink, to fill the tub.
Once the tub was filled enough, and at the correct temperature, I got in and continued mooing. Later I realized I had to push and the midwives were not there. My mother-in-law was kind of concerned that the baby was going to be coming out very soon. So I screamed at her, “Will you please check me for dilation?!” She did, which stands to be one of the weirdest experiences in our entire relationship, where my mother-in-law put her whole hand up my birth canal, but also had to grab a nearby lamp to shine it up my- you know. So that went well. She said I was almost ready but to try to hold on until the midwives got there, but that was not happening. My body just started pushing that baby out. It’s like telling someone to stop throwing up, mid vomit; you can’t stop it, it’s just happening. So I’m pushing this big hunky baby out, and the midwives are trying to haul their oxygen tanks up the steps and into the house. My water had already broken and the baby was coming and he was there within 20 minutes or so. That went smoothly, he was healthy. We were all overjoyed. There was more shouting from me about donuts and wine; at 10 a.m.
After that we had all our families come over later. Well, my mother-in-law and father-in-law are long divorced, and do not speak at all. But over the past year my mother-in-law bonded with my husband’s stepmother. They had a little female Maltese dog and decided to breed it with my mother-in-laws male Maltese. The puppies were born approximately 5 days before our son was born. One of those puppies was promised to my parents. So all the family’s gather in the living room to welcome the new baby, but they only wanted to talk about how bad they felt for Lily, the female Maltese, while she gave birth to 5 puppies. Meanwhile, I’m sitting there in the living room, stitched up on the couch I had just given birth next to, only hours before. They all wanted to show off pictures of the puppy and everything. I don’t think they even noticed there was a human genetically related child next to them, or literally in their arms, that a human woman had just pushed out this 8 pound 10 ounce grandson. It went really well and thank you for listening to my home birth TED talk.
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Caller
I was 19 when I had my son. I was admitted into the hospital the night before, the next day I was induced at about 12 p.m. It was pretty strange, I remember walking around a lot because I felt really restless. I got up one time to use the restroom and peed on the floor. I thought, “Oh I should clean that up, might as well do something with myself.” The nurses were like, “Oh no, we can do that” and I felt bad. The time goes on, contractions start, everything happens, I got the epidural. The epidural only worked on half of me vertically, so my leg and arm was numb and that was it, so I felt just about everything almost. During the time of me giving birth they had to flip me upside down almost, on the bed. I remember I was upside down and I passed out, when I woke up I was right side up and my son was out of me. I don’t remember much because I was quite out of it, obviously, and I was bleeding profusely apparently. I remember my midwife was panicking saying, “We have to get you stitched up, this is really bad.” When they were doing that, they handed me my son and I was shaking so badly because I had no strength and I had to hand him over unfortunately because I didn’t want to drop him. I had to give him back to the nurse and the midwives stitches kept slipping, and I felt all of that, and I just remember telling the midwife, “Don’t make it hurt, please don’t make it hurt.” Everything went well after that, I had to be on iron supplements. I found out after the fact I almost died of blood loss but my son was born healthy.
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Kristen
This is Kristen, and this is the story of my first time giving birth. I was actually born at home and I think that that really influenced my ideas about what I wanted my giving birth experience to be like. When I was pregnant I was planning for a home birth. My parents drove out to Denver, where we lived, and they were going to be there for the birth of my baby and to meet their newest grandchild. The day that I was in labor, my mom and dad were there. My mom was making me food and rubbing my back and it was just really nice to have my mom there. We were in touch with the midwife a little bit throughout the day but she said, “Sounds like textbook early labor.”
Later in the day my water broke, and that was one of the indications to call the midwife and say, “Come now!” So we did. She said ok and was on her way. After they hung up my mom told my husband, “You need to call her back, I am seeing something when Kristen has a contraction.” We called her back and she told my husband to take her off speaker phone. I think the concern was that what my mom was seeing was the umbilical cord, but I could still hear her even though the phone was on normal level. I heard her say, “Kristen needs to push really hard for her next contraction.” So the next contraction came and a foot came out. So the midwife said to hang up and call 911. We hung up and called 911. While they were on their way we called the midwife back and she stayed on the phone with my husband the whole rest of her drive over. She got there and put the doppler on my belly, which is what hears the baby’s heart rate, and the baby’s heart rate was fine. That was a really good sign that the baby was not in distress. Then about a minute or 2 later the paramedics got there, and ultimately, I ended up having to climb off the bed, with a foot sticking out of my body, get a robe on, and get on the gurney. They wheeled me to the ambulance.
We took an ambulance ride to the hospital. My husband followed quickly behind. Once we got to the hospital I was wheeled to the operating room. The doctor said, “I think she’s going to deliver this baby breech, but I just need to check the positioning first.” Which was the most painful thing, up until that point, that I had experienced. That’s when they discovered that the baby was not only breech, but sunny side up, and the other leg was externally rotated and in kind of a yoga tree pose. He said to me, “We’re putting you under and we’re getting this baby out now.” Finally they put a mask over my face and I finally went out, I don’t remember that really. The next thing I knew I woke up and my husband was holding this squishy little thing and they said, “You have a baby girl!” We had kept a sex of the baby a surprise. I was pretty altered from the anesthesia and the drugs, because I had an emergency C-section.
Obviously I had drugs in my body so meeting my baby and the first couple of days were all kind of a haze, which I don’t particularly love, but I had a big healthy baby who’s now 4 and a half. Then 3 years later I had my home birth experience. I had a successful VBAC with my son, which stands for Vaginal Birth After Cesarean, and successfully delivered a baby at home. So that’s it! My first home birth turned into an emergency C-section. I have a breech baby who is just a little spitfire with an amazing spirit, and my son is a little mischievous guy. Thanks for listening!
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Denise
My name is Denise, and my birth story is about the day I was born. The story happened over 52 years ago. My mother arrived at the hospital to deliver me and found out that I was breech, meaning my bottom and feet were positioned first instead of my head. This meant significant complications could occur and the nurse was very concerned. The doctor had been called but was not getting to the hospital fast enough. The nurse kept telling my mother not to push, to wait for the doctor to get there, but that just wasn’t possible. I was delivered before the doctor arrived.
Once the doctor did arrive, it was apparent why he was late. He showed up stinking drunk to the hospital. Because of the breech delivery, my left foot was bent during the process. So the doctor took one look at me and told my parents that the entire left side of my body was paralyzed, then left the room. Fortunately before my parents could fully process this information, the nurse assured them that I was not paralyzed, I just had a club foot. So I was raised in a cast that covered almost my whole left leg for a while. I’m happy to say that there were no lasting effects from that unusual delivery. Love your show. Thank you!
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Jennifer
This is Jennifer and this is my birth story. Back in 2004 I was pregnant for the first time. I had gestational diabetes and I had a really hard time controlling it, so my baby grew quite large. At 35 weeks they said, “He needs to come out.” She said it kind of quietly and I didn’t quite hear her and since it was my first child and I was quite scared, I kind of ignored her hoping that I wouldn’t have to have him that day, but I did. So we went to the hospital with my husband, and we had to wait around for a while. They had to test if my baby’s lungs were mature enough. I did the test and waited about 8 hours, and about 8pm on November 4, 2004 my son was born. He was born at 35 weeks but he weighed 10 pounds 8 ounces, he was quite large. He seemed ok, they did put him in the NICU to make sure because he was born so early, but he did ok. He got to go home. I think he was there for about 4 days, and then we got to go home.
I was at the time trying to exclusively breastfeed. I was doing everything everyone told me to do. They showed me how to put him on, he latched perfectly and he would suck, but he wouldn’t do it for very long. He was very tired. He didn’t once open his eyes for the first week of his life, never opened them he slept all the time. I did what everyone told me to do, putting him on and waking him up cause he wouldn’t want to wake up to feed. He didn’t cry at all. He would latch on but only suck for a little bit before he fell asleep. Finally after a week I thought, “This baby doesn’t seem right.” He wasn’t waking up on his own at all, he slept all the time, so I finally took him to the ER. They told me he was severely dehydrated. If he had gone another day he could’ve died. They took him back to the NICU. They pulled me aside and they wanted to talk to me like, “What did you do to your child?” I told them, “I did what I thought was best. I put him on and everybody told me he would be fine. That he was a big baby and he would be fine.” Well he wasn’t. I had to learn the hard way that I wasn’t producing enough milk and he needed to be bottle fed. So that’s what happened. He’s ok now at 16 years old. He’s a happy healthy boy now.
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Caller
My twins’ birth was quite an adventure. I was 28 years old and was recently separated from my husband and I had a 1 and a half year old son. My son and I had moved in with my parents for a short time until I could figure out where to go and what we would do. One day my son started getting a cold that wouldn’t get better. After 2 trips to the ER he was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. The doctors informed me that he had a collapsed lung and would need surgery to remove this tissue that had grown around his little lung. My son’s dad came to see him a couple of times and basically left me to deal with our son for over a month while he was in the hospital. I was so stressed and sad. He was finally able to come home and they put in a PICC line so I could administer antibiotics at home for him, so we wouldn’t have to stay at the hospital. It was exhausting.
One night I decided to go meet a friend for a drink after my son was finally better. While at the restaurant I met an old friend from high school and we exchanged numbers to catch up. That led to a dinner invite and also it said to bring my son with us. I was so surprised and felt like it would be good to do something and get out of the house. At the end of the night we put him to bed and we ended up having a little too much to drink and we had sex. I guess I did it a little bit out of spite because I was so angry at my husband and all the crap that we had been through, not thinking much about the consequences. Never have sex with someone out of spite. It backfired big time in my case. I realized that I wasn’t into him like that and didn’t really talk to him again for a while. I eventually missed my period and started freaking out. Sure enough I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. I struggled with what I would do. I was a single mom with a baby, how could I do this? My life was in no way able to manage having another baby right then. So I decided to tell him and he said, “Whatever you do is fine with me.” At the time I felt there was no other option but to have an abortion. That’s what I thought would be the right decision considering I was still married and I still had a young son.
A couple of weeks later, I was in the shower and I had almost passed out and felt really faint. So I went to the hospital and told them that I was about a month and a half pregnant. They did lot’s of tests and an ultrasound and eventually informed me that I was pregnant with twins. Along with a lot of smiles and congratulations from the hospital staff. I hated the way I felt. I was torn with guilt and so sad. After I left the hospital I called my mom and I told her, “Surprise! I’m having twins.” She was ecstatic. Me, not so much, but I knew that I had no choice but to keep these 2 precious lives and that God would help me find a way. So I told their dad and he was super excited at first. After a few months he sat me down and said, “I don’t trust that those kids are mine and I’m not signing any paperwork as their father until I have a paternity test.” So that was fine, and then the rest of the pregnancy it only got worse. I didn’t talk to him much but I ended up on bedrest after 6 months because the stress and potty training of a 2 year old was pretty tough.
I ended up going into early labor. My body started having contractions and luckily they gave me medication to stop it. Thank goodness for my mom, she was there to help me. The goal was to keep them baking in there for at least 36 weeks, so I did! Let me tell you, I was so bored being home, but I had so much time to bond with my son before they came. It was wonderful to have that time alone with him. I made it to 37 weeks when I finally asked my mom for some spicy enchiladas. I started having contractions at 1am. We left my son with my friend and my mom and I headed to the hospital. They admitted me and said, “Well you’re having these babies today.” So I waited around until about 8 o’clock in the morning, and I called the girls’ dad; as much as I didn’t want to. Shortly after that the crazy started. He showed up and was pacing all around the room. He was so stressed out. Apparently he called everyone he knew because soon there was a parade of his mom, grandma, sister, aunt, 2 best girlfriends, 2 best guy friends. They all showed up, in my room, while I’m in excruciating pain in my bed. Eventually so did the rest of his family, I was so irritated. After hours of this I begged the nurse to get them all out of there.
I eventually felt so bad and was in so much pain that I figured I better get the epidural. That took 2 more hours. When I finally got it I was more than 7 centimeters dilated and it just wouldn’t work. My labor progressed over a couple more hours and they told me that baby B was breech and that they needed to prep the OR incase there were complications. Luckily, baby A was in position and head down, so she came out with no problems and they assured me that they would probably be able to deliver baby B breech if they had to. Best case was that with the extra room after the first one was born, it would allow her to turn around. After some cussing and major pain they said I was ready to deliver her. I wanted my mom to come in with me but their dad argued with her that he should be there. I was so mad but I said fine. After a few pushes he asked if he should hold my hand or something. I told him, “Do not touch me. This is all your fault.” So he didn’t, and a couple minutes later out popped Miss McKenna. She was 6 pounds and 3 ounces. This baby had dark hair; and I’m blond so I was surprised. Then their dad said, “Well my hair isn’t that dark. I knew that those weren’t my babies.” I was so mad. How dare he say such a thing at that time.
As I’m catching my breath they told me that I had dilated back to 7 centimeters and would have to continue laboring until I got back to 10 centimeters. I was shocked. I said, “What do you mean? How long is that going to take?” They said, “Well it could be half an hour, it could be hours. We don’t know.” So they wheeled me and the baby back into the room to continue laboring. I was miserable. I begged for another epidural and they said they had to order another one and it could take a while. I said, “What?! It’s still in my back just get another dose.” Anyway, the only name that we agreed on at that time was McKenna. I wanted to name baby B Lillian after my grandma and great grandma from Sweden. He felt that this was a great time to argue with me about names and refused to agree to anything that I liked. This should’ve been a warning that I was going to be dealing with this from him for the rest of their lives. My mom finally asked him to stop, and he wouldn’t, so that same sweet nurse asked him to leave the room.
The nurse had left, and about 2 hours later I felt this big “bloop” and that baby dropped her head down low. Man the pressure was unbelievable. I told my mom in a panic to get the nurse because she was coming out. The nurse came in very nonchalantly and said, “Oh that baby isn’t coming.” I said, “Yes she is, I can feel her head!” She checked me and then sprung into action. She flung open the curtain and ran down the hall calling for the doctor. Now I’m glad that the epidural didn’t work because I wouldn’t have felt her coming. My mom looked and said that she could see her head and I was freaking out. Her dad came back in the room at that point but luckily was able to keep quiet. As soon as the doctor walked in the door, the baby came out all on her own. I didn’t push or anything, my body just pushed her out. He caught her just in time. My mom thought she was going to have to deliver him if the doctor didn’t make it. Out came my sweet baby without a name. She weighed 6 pounds and 13 ounces.
I was so relieved but only for a minute. While everyone was looking at the babies, their dad started in again saying, “What are we gonna name her? I want Kayla and I don’t like anything else that you like.” At that point he had beat me down. I couldn’t argue anymore. I said fine, let’s name her Kayla Lillian. I was delirious at that point. He still wasn’t happy and argued that we had to name her after his grandma Jewel. I said, “Fine, she will be Kayla Lillian Jewel.” That seemed to make him pretty happy.
My babies were strong, healthy and perfect. They were so cute and to my surprise looked nothing alike. One was brunette and the other was a blondie like her mama. The next day, a lady came in with the birth certificate paperwork, and since he didn’t want his name as the father until a paternity test was done, I put the last names as mine. Wouldn’t you know it, he just happened to walk through the door and asked what was going on. I told him and he started fuming. He called me a shady bitch and yelled in the hospital room that I was trying to keep him off the birth certificate. I explained that he can change it later and I thought he didn’t want to be on it. He ended up putting his name as the father and gave them his last name. I could probably write a book of what has happened since then with these babies and what we’ve gone through. It’s still going on to this day and they are 13. That’s a story for another day.
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Caller
When my mother was pregnant it wasn’t standard to go to the doctors every single month or have an ultrasound unless the doctor had concerns. My mom only went to the doctors when she found out she was pregnant and when it was time to deliver. When it was time to deliver, my mother delivered at the hospital, but it was a section off the hospital; it was a natural birthing center. So she goes in, delivers my brother, and they’re waiting for the second part of the delivery, and nothing is really happening. They were trying to get things moving along and they realized that there was something still in there. Everything went to chaos. They told her, “Listen, we don’t know if there’s another baby in there or if it’s a tumor.” They were trying to speed things up but unfortunately they didn’t have the necessary tools to do an emergency C-section right there, because it was in the natural section of the hospital. They waited a little bit longer and ended up finding out it was a baby. I was breech, so I was delivered breech, and my mother started hemorrhaging. She wasn’t on any pain pills or anything, so she is superwoman. They were able to control the bleeding. The umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck but thankfully I was ok. I was the surprise of a lifetime. Since then they did make a rule at that hospital that anybody having a baby in the birthing center had to have at least one ultrasound just to confirm there were no twins. My mom, she is superwoman.
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Kristi
My name is Kristi. On May 9 I presented as a breech baby and the doctor yelled, “I see toes!” and immediately sedated my mother. He proceeded to push me back up inside her and turn me around. My mother said we were both badly bruised and the doctor said he could’ve lost us both. I was born during the Lucille Ball show, an original not a rerun, that was 55 years ago. Thank you for the opportunity to share, have a great day.
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Caller
Hi Scott, I wanted to share my childbirth story with you and your listeners. When I became pregnant I didn’t feel that rush of connection with the child growing inside of me. From what I read and heard from so many other people, they reassured me that the moment I saw my baby I would feel the connection that I had longed for. That this bond would be immediate and I would be overwhelmed with love and attachment to this baby I’d grown inside of me for 9 months. During labor the nurses said, “Just wait until that moment, you’re gonna get there. It will all be worth it when you see your baby and you fall in love.” I gave birth and I felt nothing. I saw my daughter and just, it was like seeing a slimy little stranger. They put her on my chest, I nursed her, I held her, I did skin to skin, I did all the things I was told helped promote this amazing bond I was supposed to be experiencing. I did not experience that at all. I faked it with my friends, with my family, even my husband didn’t know how I felt for quite some time. I was ashamed, I was embarrassed and I felt like an absolute monster that I didn’t have this feeling I was supposed to have. I’m a very loving and caring person. For me to not feel that was absolutely heartbreaking. I truly felt there was something wrong with me and that I didn’t have the motherly instinct that we hear so much about. It took some time but I now absolutely adore, love and cherish my daughter; who is almost 2 years old. I think for me, maybe I’m just the type of person that needed to get to know my baby. Once I did, yes I have this unbelievable bond with her. I can’t imagine life without her and I would do anything for her. I do want to dispel this myth that it’s automatic, it’s natural, and it happens right when you have a baby. That is simply not the case. After I shared my experience, I did finally have people that admitted to me that they experienced the exact same thing. I wish this was something people would be a little more open about. It would be a lot more helpful to other mothers and parents who may not feel the initial bond that they are hoping for. Thank you!
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Caller
My story starts March 3, 2016. I had sneezed, and felt wet. Not super wet, but wet. I went to clean up and there was a lot of mucus. It was a big big clump. I ended up calling the nurse and she said to go to the ER. When we got to the ER they immediately did the test for water breakage, and my water had broken. I was only 21 weeks pregnant that Saturday, a couple days later on would be the 22 week mark. They checked me into the room and they had me hooked up to the monitor for the heartbeat and they had IV’s and they would check on me every now and then. But they never really told me, “Hey, you’re going to lose your kid.” They never told me, “This is what’s going on, you’re only 21 weeks pregnant. It’s not looking good, your water shouldn’t have broken. You know, let’s check out your cervix.” I wanted them to do something, but all they said was, “Oh lay here, you know if the baby reaches 23 weeks it would be great, we’ll be able to help a little more.” So I laid in that bed. I laid and laid and laid in that bed. Very naive and stupid. The very next day we had an ultrasound and there was still some fluid in the womb, he still looked fine, he had a strong heartbeat. They said, “Ok just lay in bed, things aren’t great. Your water is leaking but there is enough in there.” That made me think, “Ok, well let me just lay still so the water doesn’t leak out and nothing will happen.
Later on I got up to go to the bathroom and I wiped. When I wiped I felt a bulge, like his head was coming out, cause we found out it was a boy. I screamed. All I could think of was- I screamed like the horror films -my fiance burst into the room and called the nurse. Come to find out it was the sack of which our son was starting to protrude. I thought, “There is no way in hell I’m getting up out of this bed. I’m not getting out of this bed.” Time goes on and I’m laying there and I’m going in a urinal pan. I’m not moving, I’m uncomfortable, I can’t sleep, I can’t move, I don’t want to move. Third day, March 5, they were telling me, you have to go home. Your insurance doesn’t cover another day, you gotta go home. I said, “Nope. Give me all the bills. I’m not going home. Not happening. I will stay another week and if this has to happen in 23 weeks you guys can do something.” They said, “Yeah that’s true but you’ve got to go home.” So my fiance and mom were like, “Ok. So she’s going to get in the car and give birth very soon here.” They said, “Well yeah it’s a possibility.” We said, “Well why should we go home?!”
Not too long after that, however, I didn’t know they were labor pains, but they were labor pains. They hurt, they hurt, hurt, hurt. All of the sudden all I could say was, “He’s coming.” He literally slid out of me onto the bed. I just laid there and cried and cried and cried. You feel like a failure. You feel like you just killed your kid. You feel like you let down everybody. My fiance was bawling his eyes out. “Macho men don’t cry”, well he just lost it, he just lost his son. Ethan, we named him Ethan. He ended up living for 98 minutes in my arms. They would monitor his heart with a little stethoscope. We all took turns holding him. His dad and his grandma and I. Then he passed away. He was crying. He was very little, it was very soft, but he was moving. He was perfect, 10 fingers, 10 toes, black hair, dark eyebrows. He was 11 ounces, 12 inches long.
My life went out the window. A piece of my heart left and will never return. Just throwing it out there. They made us, before we had to leave, find a cremation service for him or a funeral home. Most places do not take babies of that size. We finally found one, we were going to have him cremated. Before we ended up leaving, we had him in the hospital in the room with us for 10 hours, because I couldn’t let him go. His dad had to pry him out of my arms after 10 hours because he didn’t want to remember his son, not in the way he was born. When a body is deceased it turns, and he didn’t want us to remember him that way. So he had to pry him out of my arms. We ended up bringing him down the hallway and there were a whole bunch of babies crying and I heard women screaming in labor and all I could think was, “I am a failure, I suck, my kid’s dead. I’m never gonna get to see him again.” It was the worst. We ended up getting to see him one last time before he was cremated. That was very very hard. We let him go. He’s cremated, he’s in a very small urn in the bedroom, and he’s in a heart around my neck. 5 years later, I’m alright. I’ll get triggers, certain songs or seeing kids that would be 5 years old now. I’m better than lots of people think I would be.
I wanted to take some time and talk about how October is pregnancy and infant loss awareness month. Just please everyone, if you could do one favor that would help a lot of mom’s and dad’s out who have lost a child, do a little research on what to say and what not to say. I’ve been through so many people saying certain things. They’re well meaning, but when you’ve lost your whole future, you’ve lost hope, you’ve lost memories that you’ll never be able to hold your son in your arms; there are just some things that shouldn’t be said. Everyone wanted that pregnancy, it’s not, “Oh you can try again.” Things like that are things you don’t say. I’m going to stop here. Thank you so much. Thank you.
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Lindsey
Hi Scott my name is Lindsey. I’m adopted and I’ve met my non-adoptive parents. I’ve also given up a daughter for adoption and met her as well, and have a relationship with her. I have had an ectopic pregnancy resulting in emergency surgery. I have had 2 healthy children, my daughter who’s 11 and my son who is 6. I wanted to focus on my son and his story for this message.
I found out I was pregnant pretty early on in my relationship with my son’s father; about a month into it. We had gone to several doctors appointments and he was growing faster than he should’ve. It turned out that the placenta had separated from the wall of my uterus. This causes polyhydramnios which is the access of amniotic fluid in the uterus. It was akin to him swimming in an Olympic sized swimming pool, whereas babies are usually in a little bathtub of amniotic fluid. As we were going through it kept getting larger and larger. I ended up being hooked up to heart monitors every other day for both him and myself. It eventually caused kidney failure around the 7 month mark. I was in the hospital for about a week for that. After we got out of the hospital we started having ultrasounds every single week, along with coming in every other day for the heart monitors. Then we found out that I had preeclampsia. A month before his due date I went in just like any other day. They took my blood pressure and it turned out my preeclampsia had turned into eclampsia and they told me to notify his father and anybody else I needed because I was going to be taken to have my son that day.
They induced labor and gave me the epidural and everything. As we were going on I kept pushing and pushing and he would not emerge. We found out later that we had a naturalist doctor so she was very intent on me giving birth naturally. As we found out later that would not be feasible. Matt had made it from work and my dad had come down from work, and they both stayed awake all night. This doctor kept making me attempt to give birth and he would just not come out. Everyone was staying up for 24 hours. Finally the other doctor came in and took one look at me. I was pale and had been asking the other doctor if I could have a C-section all ready and just get him out. She looked at my vitals and was like, you need to go have an emergency C-section now. Now I was headed to the OR and there were, what felt like, 50 million doctors around me and they had told my husband and myself, because of the condition I was in I might pass out when I was giving birth. As they were doing the C-section I stayed awake the whole time. When they actually had him out I didn’t hear anything and I said, “Why is there no crying? Why don’t I hear anything?” I remember the doctor standing over me saying, “Birth isn’t like it is on TV. You don’t always hear anything.” I knew immediately, even though he said that, that something was wrong with my son. That’s not normal. I’ve given birth 2 times before. I have quite a history here and I knew that wasn’t right.
Then we heard “Code Blue ” everywhere and found out that he had been born not breathing and with a very faint heartbeat and he was blue. They had to take several minutes of life saving measures for him. Finally they got him stabilized after about a minute or minute and a half and sent him down to the NICU. I got sent back to my room where they did testing and found out I was in liver and kidney failure. I had to have some emergency medications and procedures done to save my life as well. I was in the hospital for about a week and a half. My son did come home with me but we had to have daily doctors appointments after that. He still needed to be put under a bilirubin light and have some additional breathing measures done. His breathing was very shallow.
Thank you for listening to my stories.
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Megan
Hi my name is Megan. I am a single mom. I did my whole pregnancy alone. I went into labor with him slowly. It progressed slowly over a few days but I just wasn’t dilating enough, even on the medication that’s supposed to progress labor. After the second day of my water leaking I was only about 6.5 centimeters and the doctor was worried about infection for my son. So they rushed me along, they were so quick that my mom who was with me didn’t even have time to come with me. I’d been telling them that the epidural, or spinal, wasn’t working. After getting in the operating room they did a test to see if I could feel anything. I said, “Yes I do and it hurts.” They said, “No you don’t feel pain, you just feel pressure.” They proceeded to cut. It was unbelievable agony. Of course I cried out, and very quickly I was put under anesthesia. I didn’t even know that I had actually, I thought I dozed off, because I had been awake for 3 days. When I woke up he was already gone and they were putting me back together again. I missed that first look at him because they didn’t believe me.
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Nikki
Hi this is Nikki and this is my birth story. At the end of my pregnancy I woke up soaked. I went into the hospital as I thought my water broke. I was told no and was sent home. A few days later I went into an ultrasound and was told I needed to go right to the hospital because my fluids were low. I got to the hospital in the late afternoon and was allowed to eat right after they started my induction. I was fine all night and the next morning and thought, “Oh I’ve got this.” Then the contractions started full force. When you are induced, contractions aren’t like normal, so they were coming right on top of one another; primarily in my back. I really had wanted to have a natural birth so I agonized with the contractions for quite a while. I stood in the shower for ages because that gave me some relief. I finally came out and the nurses tried to help me find a position that would help with the pain, but nothing helped. I felt like my back was being broken over and over again. So I got an epidural and my blood pressure plummeted. A few hours later the epidural wore off again because I was still in labor with no end in sight. Got a second epidural and again, blood pressure plummeted, again it ran out. This time they gave me a smaller dose and I was fine. Still no baby. I was super uncomfortable, had sciatic pain despite the fact I should be numb, had horrible heartburn, and ended up throwing up everywhere. Then the second night came and my water finally broke, but still nowhere near dilated enough.
Finally at about 3pm on Sunday, Mother’s day, I was finally ready. I pushed for 3 hours. My daughter was not happy about being evicted and shoved her shoulder in, in protest. She decided to poop midway. They finally called the doctor in and got my little girl out, only for her to be whisked away for care as she was gray. I had a lot of tearing as well, so I did not get to do skin to skin and my husband did not get to cut the cord. Thankfully my daughter bounced right back and I got to hold her about an hour or so later. She looked right up at me and I swear she smiled. I decided the baby making machine was closed for business.
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Rebecca
Hi my name is Rebecca. My labor and delivery story is a little bit funny, but starts off a little sad. When I was in school to become a registered nurse, I had an acute illness that almost resulted in death. After that illness I thought that I didn’t want to return to school, because things change a lot when you’re on the other side of that bed seeing things as a patient. One of my professors talked me into coming back and I credit her for the fact that I graduated. When that professor is not teaching she is the head of the labor and delivery unit at our local hospital. A year after graduation when I was going to have my first child I immediately wanted her.
The second that the pain started I was in denial, thinking, “No this wasn’t labor. It was a little early. I’m just having Braxton-Hicks contractions.” Eventually my husband talked me into going to the hospital as he was in quite a panic. He was not happy that I made him wait in the house so I could wash my hair and shave my legs and repack my bag. When we finally got in the car to go, we had to take the dog downtown to drop her off at a friend’s house. Since it was the middle of the night all the traffic lights seemed to be stopped, so my husband ended up running traffic lights and he ran through some train tracks when he couldn’t see the train coming. He said that everytime he stopped I had another contraction and it freaked him out so bad he felt the need to drive through. We got to the hospital and I waddled inside and all I could get out between contractions was asking the unit clerk where my professor was. I just knew that she had to be there, luckily she was. I was still in denial that I was in labor. When I finally got to a room I ended up having the baby within 3 hours of arriving at the hospital, which is not actually very healthy. If you are in active labor for less than 4 hours it’s considered precipitous and it’s not the healthiest thing for mother or child. Everything ended up being ok. My doctor was busy with someone else in another room and all I wanted was for my professor to stay there and deliver my baby (laughter). She almost got to, but at the very last second the doctor ran in the room. My professor handled everything from the time I got there to when the baby was out. I was absolutely delighted that she was the one that got to do everything because I do credit her for the fact that I became a registered nurse. Now I’m in school to become a doctor of nursing so I credit her with that as well. I’m going to be a nurse practitioner just like her and that makes me really happy.
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Jen
Hi Scott, my name is Jen and I’m calling to tell you my story. After 9 months of carrying my firstborn and delivering him, on my very first night home from the hospital I laid down in my bed next to him and I immediately sat up as fast as lighting as I realized for the first time that I finally know another person who shares my DNA. I cried hysterically. I’m an adoptee whose records were sealed until 2019. This was 26 years ago and I now have 3 children. I did an ancestry test and finally had my biggest wish fulfilled, or so I thought. I found my biological family including a full sister, which was where the awful insanity began. Some secrets are meant to remain secrets. Also, when I had my second child, I ended up with a pelvic thrombosis blood clot, headed for my lungs; which could have given me a massive heart attack at 26 years old. If I had not been rushed into the hospital emergency room I may have had a massive heart attack. Keep in mind that I had no health history info at the time, so after my doctor asked me if there were heart attacks or clotting in my family, for all I knew maybe my bio mom died when she had me from the same condition. As that was back in 1997. I still had no medical history or information on who my biological family was. I thought that was kind of what you were looking for in an interesting birth story, thank you for letting me share.
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Hey, that was fun! Remember to check out Sylvia’s story on the website page for this episode.
And now, before we end this one, I’d like to ask for some feedback from you. Yeah, I’m talking to you – because you’re the listener, and you are the most important part of this whole thing.
As you probably know, each regular episode of What Was That Like ends with a segment called Listener Stories. This episode will even have one, even though the whole show was listener stories. I like to end each episode with one of these. This is just a short story, something that takes maybe 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes to tell. And it’s about something unusual that happened to you – the listener.
Just stop and think right now – what’s the weirdest thing that has ever happened to you? Or, what’s the most surprised you’ve ever been? Or what was the time when something happened, and you just sat there in shock for a few minutes? Or how about this – what’s the story about something unusual that made you really, really happy? Hey, maybe you even have a childbirth story and we didn’t get to include it in this bonus episode and now you’re inspired to tell it – that’s perfect.
There are a couple of ways you can get your listener’s story to me. One way is to just call my Podcast Voicemail line. That number is 727-386-9468. It’s available anytime of the day or night, and it is ALWAYS voicemail. That line never gets answered. But when you call that number, you have a 3 minute voice mail recording that you can do.
Now what if you get part way through and you get confused or you mess up your words or something? No big deal! Just hang up, and call back and try it again. You can do that as many times as you want, until you get one that you’re happy with. So that’s one way.
But what if you’re outside the US and can’t call a US phone number? Or what if your story is one that takes longer than 3 minutes to tell? That’s great! If that’s the case, you can just record the audio on your phone. The app that I use for this sometimes is called Hi-Q. That’s just H I, then a dash, and the letter Q. It’s a free app that I use on my Android phone. I think iPhones already have an app like that. So you can just record the audio, and then email that audio file to me at Scott@WhatWasThatLike.com.
So I am really looking forward to hearing YOUR story, and hopefully you’ll hear it too, on an upcoming episode in the Listener Story segment at the end of the show.
And now, we’ll close with this week’s Listener Story. You’ll never guess what it’s about. Next regular episode is coming up in one week, so I’ll see you back here real soon.
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Caller
I had a very unique childbirth experience with my second. I was in my first semester of nursing school. I was going to be due a month after the end of the semester which is in the summer. So I was going to have a little bit of time with my baby before I went back to school. I had one teacher in particular, she was teaching “The Fundamentals of Nursing” , a very beginner core course. She specialized in geriatrics. She would joke with me all the time, “You’re not contracting are you? Because if you are, I’m calling an ambulance because I don’t do babies.” So there were a couple times throughout the semester that me and some of my friends pranked her and made her think I was going into labor just to make her nervous. It kind of became this joke.
Well, I was walking into my last final of the semester, which just happened to be her class. As we’re getting ready to go in, my water broke. I just kind of stopped and I turned to my sister-in-law, who was also taking the class with me and said, “My water just broke.” She looked at me and later she said that she knew I wasn’t joking because she could see every single freckle on my face. I was so pale because I was scared. This was about a month before my due date. Some of the girls ran into the teacher’s offices to get my instructor and they were saying, “Her water broke!” She took a little while to come to me because she said, “You guys. I’m not doing this” thinking that it was a prank again. They finally convinced her to come out. So she came out and she kind of looked at me. I was wearing a dress, so she slightly lifted it up to make sure there wasn’t a big bag of saline in there or something that I was using to trick her. Once she realized that yes I was in deep and was serious, she said to my sister-in-law, “Go ahead and take her to the hospital. I’ll figure out another time for you guys to take your finals.” So we went to the hospital and were kind of laughing and joking about it. I was told later that I did my fellow classmates a huge disservice because now they couldn’t think about the answers on their tests. They were so surprised and couldn’t stop thinking about what had just happened.
Anyway, I got to the hospital, and I had planned on not getting an epidural. Not because I disagree with them but simply I just wanted to see if I could do it. I labored for about 24 hours and was not progressing. I was up and walking around and I passed this really large blood clot. Even though I had not taken OB in nursing school yet, I thought, “I don’t think that’s supposed to happen.” We called my nurse in, she came in and checked and discovered that my baby’s cord was coming before the baby. It’s called a prolapsed umbilical cord. It is a medical emergency. It is very very dangerous because each time you have a contraction it cuts off the baby’s blood supply. The doctor came in and he was talking to the nurses about what was going on. I said, “What does this mean?” He said, “It means you have to have an emergency C-section right now.” They started getting me prepped to go into the OR, my husband was starting to get on a suit that you have to wear to go into the OR. The doctor said, after looking at the baby’s vital signs, “No, I’m sorry you can’t come back. This is dangerous, we have to take her right now.” So they wouldn’t let my husband come back with me. I remember them rushing me into the operating room. I had worked in an operating room for several years and when I saw all those people and how fast they were setting up I thought, “Oh. Something bad is happening. This is very serious.” They put me under general anesthesia since I didn’t have an epidural in place, so I wasn’t even awake for the C-section. I was terrified, I went to sleep with tears rolling down my cheeks because I was sure I was not going to survive.
When I woke up and asked my nurse if my baby was ok she said, “Yes she is but they have to take her to a different hospital.” The hospital I was at didn’t have a NICU. I was told that she had lost about 75 percent of her blood volume because along with the prolapsed cord, I also had what’s called an abruptio placenta,where the placenta begins to tear away from the wall. The doctor said the placenta did not look healthy and looked like it had been abrupted from days to weeks. My baby was taken to another hospital and I started to recover from my C-section. The next day they allowed my husband to drive me over to the hospital even though I was still a patient, and let me see my baby. She ended up being in the NICU for 11 days. She had to have a blood transfusion along with some antibiotics. She was on oxygen for 3 months after she came home and then again for a month when she was 8 months old, after contracting RSV and bacterial pneumonia. She is 9 years old now and she is as healthy as can be and we are so grateful to have her in our family. It’s definitely a memorable experience, I will never forget it.