In Your Life and Around the World

The personal birthing experience I want to talk about is that of my first child.  It was the first birthing experience for me and it was highly spectacular.  There was a heavy noise early that morning from a blown transformer not far from my residence; I got up sharply from sleep and as I stood up the water broke.  After some hours I was at the hospital.  There was no contraction then I was given an injection to induce labour, then the doctor left.  The pain started with contractions at intervals.  I got to the hospital about 9.00am and at about 6.30pm the contractions had become severe and there was no doctor or nurse around.  I was in that pain all alone in the room till the doctor on ward-round came at about 7.30pm.  He asked who was detailed to stay with me, I said none.  I was examined and he brought a nurse with an instruction “stay with her” while he continued the ward round.  The nurse peeped outside to be sure the doctor was no longer around, turned to me and said “it’s not time yet, just stay”, and she left.  The doctor, understanding the system, came back after about 8 minutes to check on me, “where is the nurse?” he asked, “I don’t know”, I responded.  He went out to get another nurse.  This happened about three times before he finally came back to take the delivery himself.

The actual delivery was another episode because the baby was distressed having stayed longer than required.  The doctor then tried to use a ventouse (vacuum extractor) to pull the baby, but with head full of hair it did not work.  He changed to Forceps and had to do a large cut because by then, it was rather too late.  Finally, the baby was out, the doctor rushed to resuscitate the baby while the Intern doctors (supporting) attended to me.  This is in a nut shell, but it was a sordid experience, even after birth I carried the remnants of placenta for months with each day in pain as if in labour. 

I choose this example to highlight the essence of proper prenatal medication as this helped to sustain me and the baby throughout the ordeal and after (doctor confirmed).  The impact could make the victim run from birthing and might even loose the baby.  Some mothers might be hostile to the baby as if it was the baby’s fault which will definitely affect the child’s development.

In Nigeria generally, especially in the General Hospitals, that is, government hospitals, once pregnant, you must register for prenatal care, you would have appointment dates when there would be proper check up, register your complaints and drugs would be given with required injections.  On delivery date, which would have been confirmed during the previous prenatal appointment, be at the hospital with the necessary items for both mother and child.  Doctors would be around to attend to you and support as the birthing progresses.  However, if you do not register with any of the general hospitals and you had course to go there to resolve complications, the patient would either not be attended to amidst series of abusive words or left to bleed for several hours, after giving birth on the bench where seated, before being attended to, still with series of abusive words.  It was a bit different from the personal example provided because I registered there from the beginning, hence I was ushered into a room where I eventually put to bed.  The situation was still similar in that there was no sign of care at all, more so, the elderly doctors were aware this but nothing was being done.   The experience interfered with the bonding process because I was hospitalized for some a week in order to evacuate the remnants of the placenta.  Also, these other women left on the bench to bleed were left while the babies were carried inside.  I must submit that the health care workers, like the early childhood professionals, are supposed to be the custodian of adequate care.