I remember leaving the mall, going home, taking a shower, grabbing my over packed hospital bag, and heading to the hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital I went right into the room where I would give birth to the most beautiful baby girl I had ever seen. The contractions started off tolerable, however, I was having a hard time dilating so I was given pitocin. On September 7th after the pitocin the contractions kicked up and I needed medicine. Within a few hours later my beautiful baby was here healthy and wide-eyed.
I remember the hospital was clean and sanitary. Everyone wore gloves and seemed pretty sterile. They took my baby after about 3-5 minutes of skin to skin to clean her and check her vitals. The umbilical cord was cut pretty quickly. And nurses were coming in around the clock.
Now I live in Belgium. I am 22 weeks pregnant and so far EVERYTHING has been different, yet quite similar. First things first my doctor is not fluent in English. The language here is French. Also, they do not use gloves when collecting blood. In the hospital where I will give birth there is only 4 birthing rooms total. They are strongly against pain medicine and believe that everything should be done naturally. They do not wash the baby right away and after birth, they leave the mom alone to bond with the baby. They strongly encourage nursing, and they encourage parents to keep things as natural as possible. This time around I plan to have a water birth, no meds, and to document this experience.
If I had to compare my experiences, so far my Belgium one takes the cake. Although it is nothing like America I know that I am in good hands and so is my baby.
I think that your experience in birthing is quite interesting because it presents a cultural difference between the two worlds! I think that when mothers are able to experience a birth in two different areas of the world-they experience a truly awesome blessing. My question to you: though you have physically seen the difference between the two birthing experiences, which do you believe truly exemplifies the bonding between mother and child?
ReplyDeleteHi Haleema
ReplyDeleteDuring my childbirth giving, I went through the same procedure. My hospital was under the British method; it seems as if most European countries use the same method. It is much worse than the ones here in the United States. I had my second daughter in the US, and it definitely proved to be a much better improvement.