Sora's Musings

No, not me...I know what you were thinking when you read that title. Shame on you! I am SO done. But enough about moi, Megan had her baby last night! A very beautiful baby boy named Ripley Jax Moffat Charbonneau. I was called to the hospital at about 1:00 in the morning and he was born by 4:40. Since I don't want to bore the skulls off of everyone, I will just say this...she had him vaginally (YEA!) and didn't need the epidural. Let me rephrase that...she desperately wanted the epidural as she was dilating from 5 cm to 9 in a half an hour, but luckily they couldn't get to her before she was fully dilated. I am so happy for her, and hope that it has finally healed the wound that having the C-section last time ripped into her soul. Rather than just rehash the whole event, in sordid detail, I just want to say, that from an outsiders point of view I am appalled at how women are treated as they birth in the hospital. Everyone was very nice there, of course, but there were these surreal moments in which I kept thinking to myself "does anyone else see how fucked up this is?". Example: The doctor checks Megan and she is 9 cm dilated, I help her get off the bed to stand and get rid of the rest of that lip of cervix. A few contractions later, the nurse says "you let me know if you feel the urge to push...we don't want you pushing". So I turn to her and say "is there any particular reason why she can't push when she feels the urge". The nurse says "well, we don't want her to push until we know she is 10 cm dilated". I stood there, and thought "it is one fucked up system, when you need the nurse to give you permission to do what your body is already telling you it is ready to do." Honestly, it is as if they they need to control the entire event, and only when they are satisfied that she is ready can she push. Honestly, they don't need to know how dilated she is, at all. It's ridiculous. It would be like someone saying "now, we don't want you to pee until we are satisfied that your bladder is full" To which you would be thinking "well, why do you need to know....I KNOW my bladder if full...doesn't matter if you do". GAH. Then there was the whole doctor having a conversation about how he doesn't like to work on Sunday nights, how it can be "hard" while Megan is doing the HARD work of pushing her baby out. ~rolling eyes~ I was so offended by that line of conversation that I just turned to Megan and told her how great she was doing, focusing just on her. I mean honestly...don't be a doctor if you don't want the weird hours. And certainly don't talk about how hard it is for you, while a woman is sweating and bearing down in front of you, as you sit on the stool doing pretty much nothing.

OK...that sounded like a rant...but honestly it was a very very good birth, and I am so amazed and proud of Megan. What a privilege to attend someone's birth.