From: klj@cbnews.cb.att.com (karen.l.carr)
Subject: Re: "Missing out" (was. re:  Justin...)
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 18:02:58 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.222114.12255@cco.caltech.edu>, hough@seismo.gps.caltech.edu (Susan Hough) writes:
> In article <1992Sep1.175933.24905@ntmtv> missy@ntmtv.bnr.ca (Missy Iaquinto) writes:
> >I'm not sure who is hardest on mothers who have drugs, and/or c-sections
> >during their birthing, women who have not experienced labor, women who
> >*have* experienced labor, and refused/did not require intervention, men,
> >doctors, or the mothers themselves.
> 
> I have my own feelings about the answer to this.  Every so often,
> a smug posting appears from someone who had either a wonderfully easy
> delivery or a difficult labor that they toughed out without drugs.
> These letters typically extoll the virtues of unmedicated deliveries and
> the worst of them go on to say that more women could do it IF THEY REALLY
> WANTED TO.  

I had a c-section, but I don't really feel like a failure.  Reading stories
of people who had babies larger than mine, though, make me wonder if the
section was really needed.

Probably, the main reason behind not feeling like a failure is that I was
prepared beforehand and could find out all I could about c-sections (my
doctor started talking surgury about 1 week prior to delivery), but also
because I keep reminding myself I WAS NOT LOW-RISK.  I had a bout of
high-blood pressure, that was controlled, and I had gestational diabetes,
that was under control.  Still, the reading I had done about the GD told me
that doctors really didn't like to go beyond the due date because of the
fear of a large child -- which is exactly what my doctor said.  Who was to
know that this child scrunched herself as high up in the uterus as she
could get?  It just looked like she was HUGE!  (I can't remember the
measurements of my abdomen, but they always indicated either a very large
baby or a baby a month older than my due date.  As it was, she was assessed
at 42 weeks gestational age upon birth -- and she was delivered 2 days
before her due date).

Because I wasn't low-risk (more like medium risk), the section became more
of a reality AND more acceptible to me since I wanted, more than anything,
a healthy child.  (Even now, though, it's hard to think I was NOT low-risk,
as I really felt fine throughout the pregnancy).

Anyway, that's what helped me not feel like the section was a failure.  I
do feel uneasy, though, after reading the stories of people delivering > 9
lb babies vaginally (for their first child) and I was advised not to -- but
then I also had GD and border-line preclampsia, which does change the
picture a bit.

	Karen

PS I loved my hospital; my doctor was okay.  He kept stating that he rarely
did cesearians, even though he did another the same day as mine (and seemed
to have been doing a few of them that week I was being induced, which he
agreed to try, which didn't work at all [1 cm dilated, 50% effaced after 4
days of inducing]).  Still, I'll probably look around a bit more for the 
next pregnancy and if I can't find anyone else that seems a little more to
my liking then I'll stay with him.
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