chylothorax
This is part 11 of our Birth & Parenting Series. Part 1 (Thoughts From a Mother of Four) is here, part 2 (Mother of Seven Shares Her Empowering Birth Stories) is here, part 3 (First-Time Mother of Twins) is here, part 4 (How First-Time Parents Braved a Placental Abruption) is here, part 5 (Childbirth Collective Doula Film Premiere) is here, part 6 (First-Time Mama Bravely Faces Transverse Baby & C-Section) is here, part 7 (Homeschooling Mama Shares Her Path to Schooling) is here, part 8 (First-Time Papa’s Perspective on Birth Center Birth) is here, part 9 (Mama’s First-Time Birth and Faith in Women’s Bodies) is here, and part 10 (Unmedicated Birth for First-Time Parents) is here. This story picks up where my sister left off last week, wherein her daughter was born, but not breathing. I was able to fly out to New York the day after she was born and stay for almost two weeks to help them a little during this unbelievably difficult time. AA and I are V’s godparents and pray for her continued strength every night. We feel so blessed by her presence in our lives! The experience of childbirth, even in this day of technology and modern medicine, is an open portal into the great unknown. Mothers can hemmorage; babies can arrive in critical condition without any sort of advance indication. But no one ever hears a horror story and thinks it could happen to them. I never imagined having anything other than a normal healthy baby. Why shouldn’t I? All the scans were normal, we…
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This is part 10 of our Birth & Parenting Series. Part 1 (Thoughts From a Mother of Four) is here, part 2 (Mother of Seven Shares Her Empowering Birth Stories) is here, part 3 (First-Time Mother of Twins) is here, part 4 (How First-Time Parents Braved a Placental Abruption) is here, part 5 (Childbirth Collective Doula Film Premiere) is here, part 6 (First-Time Mama Bravely Faces Transverse Baby & C-Section) is here, part 7 (Homeschooling Mama Shares Her Path to Schooling) is here, part 8 (First-Time Papa’s Perspective on Birth Center Birth) is here, and part 9 (Mama’s First-Time Birth and Faith in Women’s Bodies) is here. My sister, Molly W, chose to plan for an unmedicated birth in a metropolitan area where everything about birth was very medicated. She, her husband, and her doula worked hard to make her birth experience the best it could be–and as medicine-free as possible. Talk about determination! The ending is a cliff-hanger, but I promise to give you the rest of the story next week. How Little V Came into This World My pregnancy made its grand finale in the sweltering months of August in New York City. I had ceased taking the train to work at that point, indulging in the luxury of the local Mexican car service. At two weeks to go, I left work a little early on a Friday, feeling out of sorts. I had been having lots of benign contractions in the weeks leading up and I could not stand sitting at a desk another minute. Of course,…
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