Ja's stories

[whitewriter]

On the day of the chest drain debacle - I worked with an old colleague Ja who has 2 kids.
- the same one who had 2x c-section because her midwife at an appt decided she didn't have a body type for NVB (and this was in the last 10 yrs so talk about outdated thinking..) Ja had an ecmo case that was super sick and busy and went to IR for a procedure, and I had... Mr chest drain. So somehow in her crazy busy day, she found time to impart some wisdom on me... (nurses and some cultures can be so superstitious...)--


Story 1
Ja has 2 friends, both were pregnant at the same time. One prepared everything for their baby and the other one, didn't. The one who prepared everything, had a nice kid, all is well, happy ending. The one who prepared nothing- had a stillbirth and didn't have another child again.

-- this one gave me poor sleep 'cause the front room isn't prepared, and I spent a large chunk of time on the weekend cleaning it out and hassling Pete to move the unsafe chest of draws from taking up floor space to taking up cupboard space inside the closet, and then moving the bed around to front of the fireplace to make more space for the cot/change table/set of shelves. In the end I've got a really charming room out the front now with shelves that have little toys (some mine, some new from friends) and I've let Pete keep some of his maths books and random gift statues on there which actually add to the charm of the room. Stocked the baby change table and sprayed some nice smelling room spray and it looks like a guesthouse!

Thanks to Ja's story for making my butt move faster. I now have a nice room for the baby should it decide to come tomorrow. There's a few things that's missing/needs upgrading but nothing essential.



Story 2
Which I think I heard of before at MSH as a student but, put that horrible image out of my mind -
was that, there once was a lady, who had to be taken for an emergency c-section, or emergency birth in theaters - and the baby died, or got stuck, or something (I'm thinking it sounds like an undiagnosed breech birth) and for some reason, the only way they could take it out was to decapitate it. The entire set of OT staff who were present had to attend counselling afterwards because they were distraught with what happened (no shit).

I can see why. If it's a breech birth, and the child died somehow, and you really thought it was unresuscitatable (which, is pretty nuts, cause babies do well with resus - so it must have been really bad, or perhaps it was actually a stillbirth that ended up a breech vaginal) -- doing a cesarian to take out a dead fetus - impacts a woman's ability to have further children vaginally, and if she wants to have, say another 5 children in her plans, cesarean is likely not to be the best option here (considering this one has already died).

However I still can't get the image of a decapitated baby out of my head. Horrible.

I'm not sure what the moral of this story was in the context of me.. Ja, why did you have to tell me this?!

Comments

[wendelah1]

I don't know why she had to tell you any of that bullshit.

I didn't shop for a thing until, in retrospect, I was already in early labor. I had no trouble conceiving but I'd had two miscarriages, one a year before our son was conceived so I was very leery of doing anything to get ready. Though I am not by temperament superstitious, I refused a baby shower, I didn't buy so much as a pack of diapers. The morning of the day I went into labor, I called my mother and told her I wanted to get everything. It was summer so she wasn't working (she was a teacher) so she came, and we shopped. We had borrowed a bassinette, and been given a rocking chair by my MIL, and somehow a crib and chest of drawers and changing table made their way into the spare room, though we never had a chance to repaint. I washed all of the baby things, got it all put away. (I also cleaned my entire house that afternoon. Nesting is a thing!) At about 10 pm, my water broke, I started strong contractions, and we went to L&D. I was already 6 centimeters! Five hours later, we had a baby boy.

Getting a baby room ready means nothing. Moms can be as prepared as they possibly can be and have a good outcome--or a bad one. The baby can sleep in a box in your bedroom--I think Finland sends new moms and babies home from hospital with a full box of supplies with the box meant to be the first bed--and anyway, you can pick up what you really need for a new baby at the local drugstore on your way home if need be. Most mothers and babies do fine, as you already know.

(If only it were that easy to predict our future.)

[whitewriter]

I love the box idea - I wish we had it here. We get some sort of propaganda bag from the state govt instead which is an unpractical shoulder bag, filled with advertising. And a bath thermometer (but not a body thermometer.... like the insides of our wrists wouldn't work just as well...). Apparently you can decline the bag, but I've yet to meet someone who has.

That's a pretty funny story. And your son turned out okay :p