Childbirth-In my life and around the world

I am the mom of 3 sons.  All of them were premature by 5, 7, and 6 weeks early respectively.  My third son tried to come 10 weeks early but because of my history my doctor had his number and prevented a very early delivery.  I would like to tell you about my delivery experience with my middle son.  I was rushed to the local hospital and was in labor for about 2 hours when they decided to rush me to a larger hospital specializing in premature delivery.  I was in a stand still, not getting any worse but still having contractions for a long time.  All of a sudden his heart rate dropped and he couldn't breath.  They flipped me over on my side or stomach at this point.  I was pretty out of it now.  I must have been given some pretty strong drugs because I don't remember this portion of the delivery.  Next thing I knew they I cam around and they flipped me back over and were rushing me to the delivery room for a c-section.  My husband was completely in charge of the baby and my welfare at this point because things were happening so quickly and I had blackened out for a while.  Soon after my baby was born and was very small.  He was supposed to be in the hospital for 7 weeks but turned it around, gained weight and was healthy enough to go home after one week.  He was on a heart rate monitor everywhere we went.  It would make a loud noiese if it did not detect any movement.  At one point it was malfunctioning and would go off for no reason but still scare us a lot.  The first year of his life we had to sleep in a lazy boy chair with him propped up so he could sleep and the alarm wouldn't go off.  He is a very big 12 year old now and has no problem sleeping or eating.  It was very stressful for us but we are fortunate that things worked out the way they did and we had wonderful doctors looking out for our best interests.

I researched the birthing practices of Guatemalan people.  The Guatemalan people use no contracetive.  The pregnant women wear a necklce with 30 different colored beads to track her ovulation.  A red bead is the beginning of her cycle and brown and green beads indicate days of fertility and infertility.  Pregant women receive the first peice of food to prevent malnourishment for the fetus.  THey talk to their unborn children while they are doing chores so the child can hear there voice.  This is similar to American customs as well.  Many will let their unborn children listen to classical music which is helpful with future math skills.  The husbands make all health care decisions including when to go for a doctors appointment.  This is more of an independent decision for American women but was helpful when I was not available to make those decisions during my childbirth experience.  Certin herbs and oils are used in the bath to promote fetal well-being.  THe couple visits a casa materna before birth to reduce infant mortailty rates.  Three couples must be present during the delivery.  The womens husband, children and any single women are not allowed in the delivery room.  This is very different to our practices.  The new mom and baby are left alone for 8 days.  The child's hands are tied together to prevent greediness and feet are bound together to prevent stealing and abuse of nature.  This is oviously not something you would see in our country and might be considered a reasonable call to Child Protective Services.