Personal Narrative: A Mother's Death Of A Child

Today my mom was murdered. Our doorman, Stuart, found her in our apartment. It was strange to hear someone was murdered in New York but when it's your mom it is even harder. My sister, Maria, doesn't even know, and I don't want to be the one to tell her. I had to drop out of college to take care of Maria and not having someone else to help will be a challenge but I am willing to face it.

Medical and technological advances in maternal and neonatal care have significantly reduced maternal and infant mortality and medical interventions have become commonplace and arguably routine. Used appropriately, they can be lifesaving procedures. Routine use, without valid indication though, can transform childbirth from a natural physiologic process and family event into a medical or surgical procedure. Every intervention presents the possibility of unwanted effects and subsequent risks that can potentiate more interventions with their own inherent risks (McKinney, 2014).

The purpose of this handbook is to advise expectant mothers to avoid getting a C- section when it is time for them to give birth. In addition, the report discusses what a C-section is and the risk factors associated with it. This report points out that many doctors and hospitals tend to preform unnecessary C-sections in order to gain more money.

As stated by Penny Simkin, April Bolding, Ann Keppler, Janelle Durham, and Janet Whalley, the authors of the number one best-selling book, Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn: The Complete Guide, “While maternity care practices are continually changing the way women are helped to give birth, childbirth itself hasn’t changed. How a women’s body functions during pregnancy, labor, birth, and the postpartum period—and what she needs during these things—hasn’t changed since the beginning of humankind.” The process of birth is one of God’s greatest miracles. Although all babies go through the same stages of conception and development while in utero, that “average gestation period is 280 days, but it can be shorter or longer by as many as 14 days. At the end of the gestation period, the fetus has reached full term and is positioned for the birth process. The process, generally referred to as labor, includes three stages” (Wittmer, Petersen, Puckett, 2013, pg. 103). However, not all babies are born through vaginal births and as technology has increased many doctors are beginning to see a trend of patients asking for elective C-sections for non-medical reasons for convenience and avoiding the pain of labor, as well as concerns about vaginal tearing, incontinence, or other complications.

The birth of a child is a time of joy and of endless possibilities; parents begin to plan their child’s life goals and what college that child is going to go to. Well, at least parents of healthy babies. When I was born, it was a time of panic and “Is she going to make it?” I was born with a diaphragmatic hernia.

The day my son was born was like no other day. I was 31 and in the army attending night school for helicopter training. It was late afternoon in Virginia and I was asleep in my bed. I was awoken to my wife saying she was in labor and three weeks early from the due date. I was in disbelief, no way she could have been in labor. I had totake her to a hospital in Newport News, Virginia. The nurses had confirmed that my

Minutes seemed like hours waiting for the doctor to come in the room. My heart dropped as soon as the doctor told me that my unborn child did not develop arms or legs. I was supposed to find out if I was pregnant with a boy or girl, not that my child had a severe birth defect. You could imagine my excruciating heartbreak regarding the unfortunate news. There was no holding back the tears, no matter how hard I tried to mask my emotions. Automatically I thought of the things my son would not be able to do; crying because I felt remorse for him. I had dreams of watching him running across the yard and taking pictures of him

Everything began when mum died. She wasn’t sick or had any terminal disease, she was in a terrible car crash. Whilst driving through an intersection a drunk driver decided he would go through during a red light. He crashed into the driver’s side of the car, where mum was. I got out of the crash with just a broken arm, mum didn’t. At first I thought she was just unconscious but as I took a proper look at her, I realised that wasn’t the case. She died on impact. I was rushed to the hospital, only to come out with a pathetic cast on my right arm. The paramedics looked at mum and with one look they could tell that she was already gone.

In 1967 my friend Gladys was one that I do not understand. I do not know her whole story. I know only a small window of her life. I do not know why her life ended so tragically, and why she allowed herself to stay in a place where she would kill her children.

In the past couple of months I have read a couple of news stories involving parents who left there child in a locked and hot car, some resulting in death. One of these involved a woman in Hackensack, New Jersey who took one of her two children in the Costco to shop, while the other a 2 year old was left in her minivan for 30 minutes. 911 was called, the police responded and the child was rescued from the vehicle, covered in sweat, scared, and very shaken, but alive. The mother was charged with child endangerment, and both children were returned to there father that day.

Pulling into the crowded parking lot, full of anticipation and anxiety, I followed arrows that pointed me to the office where I had been going once a month for eight months. No amount of preparation readied me for the swirling range of emotions that my heart would feel when the nurse walked in two days before my due date and said, “we’re going to have to induce you.” No hospital bag, no one with me, and not even calming music. I had nothing with me to take with me to the delivery room. I scrambled to call someone while I was being wheeled through crosswalk over Church Street to the Baptist Hospital registration table. The enthusiastic lady at the registration table walked me through the steps of registering and offered to help contact my family.

Reporter stated the following: They mom is acting bizarre. The mom showed up with three kids. The mom had multiple stories but nothing made sense. The mom first alleged that the 3 month child and three years old were sexually abused but there was not enough evidence. When there was not enough evidence the mom’s story disappeared. The mom told nurses, doctors and everybody different stories. The mom said someone had papers to make decisions on the children. When I asked the mom if she needed shelter, Mason said will they have to go back to the grandparent’s house. They are still here. We need DCS immediately to see who has custody of these kids. We think the mom took the kids from the grandparents. Mason said the grandparents are Genie and Jerry

I interviewed my mother about her birth experience with me. I was the first born and my birth changed how she would give birth to my brother and sister. My mother's birth experience began with some mild contractions that were consistent. She and my father decided to go to the hospital, not long after arriving her water broke. She said she was around 0-4 cm dilated and her contractions were about 5-30 minutes apart. She said her pain was tolerable at this point, she was not given any medication. She did progress normally with dilation at around 1 cm per hour. She did get to a point where the contractions and labor pains were becoming severe, and hard to manage. She was given an epidural, to help ease the labor pains. When she was fully dilated

In the beginning, the loss of my Pa was hard to process. I was in total shock. In my mind, " there was no way Pa was dead". Two days before I had just visited him. Once reality hit, the emotional issues emerged. Feelings of anger, sadness, disbelief, crying, you name it I experienced it. By the grace of The Most High being in a close-knit family assisted me with pulling together in that trying moment. My Mother, Siblings, Cousins, extended family, ectera, were instrumental in how I handled the grief. At first, I participated in unhealthy forms of coping with Pa's transition. For example, when my family wanted to drink in excess in remembrance of Pa, I was there. Alcohol allowed me a way to numb the pain. Another unhealthy way I coped was oversleeping

I will never forget the moment my labor began, the moment that marked that step in my journey into motherhood. I can remember everything about it so clearly. My mom, fiancé, and I woke up early Friday morning to make our way to Western Missouri Medical Center. I stood in front of the mirror looking at my belly knowing it would be my last time standing in that bathroom with my baby inside of me still. It was a bittersweet moment that I cherished as long as I possibly could. I was set to be induced that morning and very excited, yet a little bit nervous. I had no idea what to expect. I’d been waiting a very long 37 weeks to finally meet this precious human that had been growing inside me. I had ideas of what he might look like, and what the experience might be like, however nothing could have prepared me for what was in store over the next few days.