Saturday, September 10, 2011

Childbirth- In Your Life and Around the World

When I was pregnant with my first child, I was extremely addicted to eating ice. Ice seemed like the only thing I craved for day and night. When I went to the doctor to for one of my third trimester checkups, the doctor told me that if I did not stop eating the ice I would experience difficulties during labor. Well to make a long story short, I was two weeks over due and when I went to the doctor, he decided to put me in labor. I was overdue and had only dialated one centimeter. The labor was truly an experience and 19 and a half hours later, I had a beautiful baby boy. That was 15 years ago and I remember it like yesterday.

I learned that women in Africa experience, trauma during birth due to the lack of prenatal care and poor health habits. Many of them often die during the birthing experience and infants often suffer a fatality as well due to the poor health, poor nutrition of the mother, and lack of prenatal care. This is kind of similar to my experience because I experienced a hard and long labor during the birth of my first child. It is different because unlike the women in Africa, I had access to prenatal care during my pregnancy and I also had access to a healthy choice of food.  Being under the guidance of a physican helped to prevent any fatalities and trauma to my unborn child and myself, unlike the African women who do not have early intervention to prevent death or trauma.

4 comments:

  1. Priscilla,
    My only addiction during my pregnancy was butter tarts. Needless to say, it was easy to gain 40 pounds eating one of my favorite treats. How unfortunate for those women in Africa (lack of prenatal care and face death during labor).
    Tamara

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  2. I never thought that eating ice would cause problems. I'm glad that everything worked out for you!

    I can't imagine the number of babies that die in Africa because of the lack of prenatal care, facilities and experience. This is something that has been going on for years there, and yet there is no improvement on hospitalization or giving birth.

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  3. I would have never guessed that eating ice could cause problems in labor because I have heard of so many people eating ice throughout their pregnancy. I craved milk all day and all night and I don't really like milk. Africa has so many people in poverty so I can see how the mother lacks nutrition and the child also. I wish that country could get more help to help their people

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  4. Doesn't time fly by. My children are 27,18, and 15 and it does seem like just yesturday.
    Julie

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I am a Preschool Teacher at a private preschool in Tennessee. I have been in the early childhood field for 17 years. I have an A.A.S in Early Childhood Edcuation, a CDA, B.S in Child Development with a specialization in Preschool, and currently I am working on my M.S in Early Childhood Studies at Walden University.