The night I was born

[questa]

Dec 4, 2020 21:49:57 GMT cheerypeabrain said:

Gosh Casi exciting times..its a wonder any of us survived with all the easily distracted or tipsy healthcare professionals. Wouldn't happen now hopefully. Standards.

New Years Eve...delivery not going well (Why does a mum-to=be go out partying when she is a week overdue?) On Duty specialist called in. He had not had anything to drink but had got stuck into the savories.
Baby delivered but not inclined to breath by himself. Specialist was breathing down a tube into the baby's airway to keep him oxygenated.

He was heard to say, "Sorry little fellow, if I'd known this was going to happen I would have stuck to the cheese platter, Now you are going to have your first breath stinking of cocktail onions".

[questa]

Dec 2, 2020 13:47:52 GMT mickthecactus said:

I was born next to Holloway prison.

Now that explains a lot!

[questa]

Dec 2, 2020 18:07:43 GMT onlyMark said:

My cousin, now the same age as me, was a forceps baby. Was brain damaged by it. Always needed and still needs constant care.

If a delivery needs to be done it is because the mother or baby has got to a dangerous stage and choosing not to do it is likely to cause the death of either or both. Now there are all manner of technical aid to prevent and manage these problems.
If the problem was bad enough to result in that amount of damage,Mark, it would be highly likely that mother and your cousin would not have survived without it.

[bjd]

My sister was a forceps baby because my mother had been in labour for 48 hours when a doctor said that was long enough and she was suffering too much. As far as I know, she has no marks anywhere on her head.

In those days in England, if no problems were expected, women were encouraged to give birth at home with the help of a midwife to keep operating rooms and hospital beds free.

[casimira]

My last trip up to NY in 2018 I got to stay in the big house I was born in and sleep in the room where it occurred.
I had such vivid dreams while I was there and at one point I swear I could hear a baby crying. It was creepy in it's own beautiful way but I knew that was likely going to be the last time I spent time in that house. And, it was.
At some point in the near future the house will be gone, literally as the buyers who are under contract plan to tear it down.
T. wants to have a plaque made and put on the granite wall out front that says, "here on November 8, 1953, CM was born".

[kerouac2]

I was born at the hospital. Maybe it wasn't even the most common way back then. I believe that it happened at 5 a.m. which must have been a bit annoying both for my mother and the staff.

[whatagain]

I have no personal recollection but i was born at the hospital.
I think forceps were used. I know i was overdue because it was a joke that i was already lazy at the time.
I suppose there was no peridural and my father was kept out of it.

But i do remember my children's births, and continue to say these were the 4 best days of my life.
I was looking at the monitor and would tell my wife when the next contraction would come for Robin.
After a few she told me to shut up and asked for a peridural.
I remember having to fill in all the papers and sitting on angry chairs whilst my wife had a comfortable bed.
I refused to be in front of the delivering machine and was behind my wife holding her hand.
Then i was asked most if not all times to finish the job : the doc would allow for the head and arms to be outside and i had to pull the kid and give it to the mother.
I am not going to forget the smile on my wife's face either.
Then things diverged.
For the first ones after checking the baby could walk i was asked to give him/her a bath, then for the last it was forbidden, as it was considered the remnants of the placenta would feed the baby.
I was also asked to cut the umbilical cord.

For Marie, it really looked like a family meeting.
It was the sane doc as for the 3 others, the aenesthesist was the one my wife worked with and one if not 2 of the nurses were friends of my wife. She gave birth at the hospital she worked at, at the time the baby factory of Bruxelles.
Marie came right when the restaurant was delivering food to everybody, so they all ate cold(er).
These are fantastic memories, i feel so good recounting those, so... sorry if i went from the night i was born, which was unremarkable to me... to the nights they were born, which are treasures i cherish.

[htmb]

I was born in an annex building of a small Catholic hospital. The hospital had grown in the years since the end of WWII, so a house across the street had been converted as the place for labor and delivery. I’ve only recently learned that, after delivery, mothers and their babies were carried across the street to the main hospital on stretchers. There they stayed for roughly seven days of recovery. I assume my birth mother was sent to a non-maternity floor since she was giving me up for adoption. I was the third of six children and, because my birth weight was a couple pounds less than the other five, it’s highly likely I was a couple weeks premature. My parents first laid eyes on me in the nursery and were able to take me home as a "foster child” after seven days. My adoption was finalized six months later.

I have no idea if my birth mother was given anesthesia or if she saw me after delivery, but I now know she later discovered my name and where I lived, then periodically came to our neighborhood to look for me. I doubt, based on other behaviors, she wanted me back, though I have no idea what she was thinking.

[htmb]

Whatagain, I remember all the details of the births of my four children with great fondness, too, and any memory of the pain of delivery is long gone. Those events were definitely highlights in my life, as was witnessing the birth by
c-section of my first grandchild. Those events brought a lot of special joy!

[kerouac2]

Your story almost makes it sound like fun, whatagain, even though it probably wasn't, even if it was a wonderful event each time.

Your story is obviously a bit sad, htmb, even though babies who are given up for adoption usually seem to have a better life than if they had stayed with their birth mother.

[htmb]

Yes, sad for the birth mother, in my case, Kerouac. For whatever reasons, she led a very mixed up life and inflicted pain on a lot of people. I consider myself the lucky one to have escaped to a much better life than what she would have provided. Though there were normal family problems, I grew up with loving, supportive parents and felt secure and safe with them. That wasn’t the case for my siblings.

[Biddy]

I have enjoyed reading all these posts - CheeryPB your mother was a saint. HTMB any adoption story reminds me of my youth growing up in Ireland in the mid 60s. Unmarried mothers were frowned upon and much worse. Young pregnant single girls were very often 'coerced' into giving up their baby for adoption. Many years later we all learned that many 'adoptions' were very casual affairs with babies just handed over to the adoptive parents a couple of days after birth. The Dublin suburb - Donnybrook- where I attended elementary school even had a functioning Mary Magdalen laundry facility. I shudder to think what went on there!

[htmb]

That happened a lot in the state of Florida until adoption laws were changed in 1955. Before then, adoption had been a more private affair. The doctor who delivered me was known as the go-to for young girls who needed to find a good home for an unexpected baby. However, that wasn’t the case with my biological mother. She was married to her second husband when I was born, though he wasn’t my father. He had been in France on tour when I was conceived. She must have missed him terribly.

[Biddy]

HTMB - the current adoption laws in Ireland have tightened up also. My nephew was adopted in the early 80s on Ireland. It was still 'lousy goosy'. The local parish priest delivered a 3 day old baby boy to my sister and her family. To be honest I still think of his teenage mother's bravery in giving him up. He was a perfect baby boy.

[spaceneedle]

Here's mine...

Born during the times before ultrasound existed. My parents were young parents but happily married and remained so for many decades. Anyway, the pregnancy went along uneventfully except that my Mother was getting very large, even though she was tall. The doctor kept harping at her to not eat so much. My Mom could not understand why she was getting so big when she really wasn't shoveling in the food. She said that the kicking from inside her belly was non stop day and night. She remarks to this day that she had bruised ribs from the kicking and jumping around.

Eventually the doctor decided to induce labor because of concern about her increasing girth. I made an appearance pretty quickly. But what surprised everyone was that in addition to me, there was another baby, my brother, waiting to make an appearance. He arrived 15 minutes later. When the doctors had listened for heartbeat they only heard one because we were back to back in the womb. Imagine the shock of planning for one, and getting two. That was one of the great mysteries and joys of childbirth before ultrasound, reveal parties and nano planning of childbirth.

My father later said that he was both overjoyed and terrifed at the same time when the doctor came out and told him the news.

[bjd]

What's a reveal party?

[bixaorellana]

This is a mind-numbing 17+ minutes long, which you of course can and should skip most of ~

[bjd]

Gee thanks, Bixa. I watched 37 seconds. And once they stop screeching and jumping up and down, do they expect gifts?

[kerouac2]

Parties like that exist for the express purpose of receiving gifts.

[bixaorellana]

I never thought about the gift angle. Maybe the gender reveal party is a tasteful courtesy so that guests at the baby shower will be able to choose gender appropriate gifts.

[questa]

It's a kindergarten party for mummies who have drunk too much red cordial.Mummy #1 gets to have all the attention because she knows the big "secret"(as do several of her "besties")

The Daddies go off to play golf, or arcade games, while the Mummies play games which involve squealing a lot. Then they settle down and swap stories of their adventures in motherhood.

Finally comes the "Reveal" when Mummy #1, with fanfare, reveals the gender of the forthcoming sprog. More squeals and presents are given. Sometimes the Daddies are included in the Reveal, which gives a nice touch of paternal involvement somewhere in the process.

[Kimby]

Dec 6, 2020 19:04:39 GMT bixaorellana said:

I never thought about the gift angle. Maybe the gender reveal party is a tasteful courtesy so that guests at the baby shower will be able to choose gender appropriate gifts.

I presume you are being facetious, bixa, because in this day and age we are supposed to be putting less emphasis on gender, not more.

[casimira]

Thaht's what emoticons are for Kimby and Bixa posted one to accompany her post.

[spaceneedle]

Dec 6, 2020 18:59:40 GMT kerouac2 said:

Parties like that exist for the express purpose of receiving gifts.

yes, it's all about the cash and prizes.