My Father's Birth Story:
An interview with my grandmother Farika. (My father asked to be apart of this interview because he had never heard his own birth story and was interested.)
A- Me
F- My grandmother
M- My Father
A- Was he born in a hospital?
F- He was born in a maternity home in Trenchtown [Jamaica]
A- What’s a maternity home?
F- That's where mothers come to have babies
A- Did you have a doctors assistance?
F- No, a nurse delivered my baby. In Jamaica a lot of nurses are qualified to do that.
A- Did you receive any pain relievers?
F- No, this wasn't America {Laughs} but I took a lot of calcium.
A- What does the calcium help with?
F- It relaxes you
M- ohhhh
A- Was my grandfather present?
F- The nurses kicked him out {Chuckles}
M- What time was I born?
F- 8:15 in the morning?
M- 8:15 or 8:50?
F: 8:15
A- Did you have to rush to the maternity home?
F- No, but I still did. Most people's first instinct is to rush weather or not they have to.
A- If you lived in Kingston, why’d you go to Trenchtown to give birth? Was that where the nearest maternity home was?
F- No, but this place was recommended to me by a friend because it was inexpensive and the nurse studied a lot in England so I trusted her
A: Did anything else interesting happen?
F: The maternity home was very crowded; there were many other women there. I'm pretty sure your father has a twin! {Chuckles}
M- Twin?
F: Yeah, born on the same exact time as you. There was a woman who gave birth right before me who had a dry birth.
M- What's a dry birth?
F- Her water never broke-
A- Eh, that sounds uncomfortable
F- Your father was a really lazy baby; He didn't want to come out! {Laughs} You were also a very fat baby. You came out head first but you had such wide shoulders that didn't budge.
A: How big was he?
F- He was 9lbs, and he was really short.
F- Is there anything else you want to know?
A: Yeah, did he cry? - Cut my eyes at my dad and smile-
F: Yeah I'm pretty sure; once he was born I fell asleep. He was crying in my ear but I didn't really hear him.
This interview geared me in a new direction in thought that I hadn't really considered before, which was the difference in birth experience depending on the country your in. In this interview with my grandmother, she mad it very clear that the process of birth in Jamaica was different than it is here in America. And, looking back at the questions I asked, they were mostly based off of what I knew about the American way because I was so ignorant to the Jamaican way. I also thought it was interesting how my grandmother new the stories of birth of the other women in the nursing home because I always imagined the birthing process as something secluded.
Epidurals are very common in our country but I question how the drugs giving to pregnant woman effect the child they're trying to give birth to. The usage of calcium seems a lot more practical because it is a natural vitamin; granted, I'm sure calcium is a lot less effective than an epidural. One thing I didn't agree with was the nurse kicking my grandfather out of the maternity home because I feel like a father should definitely witness the birth of his child. If this was an issue of space, I could partially understand because my grandmother did say it was very crowded (which must have been a stressful environment to have a kid in) but a father shouldn't be distanced from that pivotal moment.
Ava's birth story:
An interview with my mother's college while I was visiting her at work
A- Me
S- Mother's College
A- Excuse me is it okay if I take a little time out of your day to interview you for a school project?
S- Yeah sure you can, what it this about?
A- I wanted to ask you about the birth story of you daughter
S- yeah sure, that's fine! Ava was born a little later than expected. I had my labor induced on June 20 and thought I would give birth the next day, but she wasn't born until three days later.
A-What exactly do they do when they induce your labor?
S- My doctor gave me many doses of medicine to try and induce labor, but nothing was working on me so they had to perform an unplanned C-section
A- did the unexpectedness of this worry you at all?
S- Somewhat, but I was going through so much pain because of contractions I just wanted to get the whole thing over with.
A- How painful was your contractions?
S- Very. But, I ended up getting an epidural because I couldn't handle the pain anymore.
A- Thank you for your time
This interview in particular gave me the most insight about how ignorant I was of the process of childbirth. Before this, I had no clue that doctor's inducing birth was something standard. I began to wonder how the drugs and gels given by doctors affected the children, and if they were more affective than any natural alternatives. Obviously in this case they were not, so this woman had to have an unplanned C-section. This made me think of how unpredictable childbirth is, and although there are many different approaches to the same procedure it is impossible to tell which one is the most beneficial until the birth actually happens. It was also interesting to see how these two different parts of the birth process were connected to one another. It makes me imagine the process as a game board where your path is altered depending on where you move.
During the interview, I remember starting to think of the medical and technical process of childbirth. I had no idea that labors were to be induced by a physician, but in later research, I found out that it is a rather common occurrence. This being my second interview, I saw a theme of "natural vs. medical methods" beginning to arise. I have heard of many natural birth inducing processes but I never heard of any medical ones until this interview. This is important to look into because those who give birth are constantly debating the two methods.
Aldin's birth story:
An interview with my Cousin (male)
A- Me
M- My cousin Michael
A- So you had Aldin about a year ago right?
M- Yeah
A- Would you mind telling me about the birth process from your perspective?
M- Yeah sure, no problem
A- Were you and [your girlfriend] together when you went to the hospital?
M- yeah, I was in bed when her water broke and she woke me up so I could drive her to the hospital
A- did you rush to the hospital?
M- Well not really because she didn't start having contractions yet, so she told me it was fine if I got dressed and everything before we left.
A- did you witness any of the actual birth?
M- No, I couldn't, just imagining the sight of child birth makes me nauseous.
A- But don't you think that it is important to witness your child being born?
M- I actually do but seeing stuff like that makes me woozy
A- How did your girlfriend feel about you not being there?
M- I mean she understood. She's the same way about things like that. And her sister was in there for moral support, she cut the cord and everything. I came in after that though and held Aldin.
This was the least informative of the three interviews conducted but it was interesting to see the huge difference between a woman's experience and a man's. My cousin chose not to be in the room during the birth because it made him uncomfortable. I was amazed at how much of an option men have to participate during the whole process of pregnancy! If they did not care enough they could be removed from the whole thing. Luckily my cousin was supportive enough to go to the hospital with his girlfriend and come in after the birth.
My cousin's girlfriend had also had Aldin in a hospital, which reassured my assumption that going to the hospital was our country's most standard birth procedure. This geared me in the direction of research I'd be doing, because if the majority in our country practices the same procedure, then it is more important to learn about the details of that specific method. I also wanted to compare birth giving strategies, so it is necessary to know a lot about what I'm comparing these "alternatives" to.
