The Different Experiences through Labor and Delivery - Paper Example

Introduction

The birth story has been widely recognized as a vital process of teaching pregnant women on how to prepare during labor and delivery. Every delivery is different and unique to every mother because they undergo different experiences during the labor and delivery process. My interview with three women from different generations showed that every woman has a unique experience during childbirth. I will assign them names as Cathy (25 years old), Margie (35 years old), and Jenifer (50 years old) to protect their identities.

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In my interview with the three women from different generations I aimed at answering the following questions:

How long were you in labor?

Each woman experienced the labor period differently. Cathy answered that her labor period was three days. Margie and Jenifer had one day period of labor each. The difference in labor period depends on the dilation, in which some people with high dilation have a low period of labor and those with slow dilation experience longer hours of labor pain.

Did they give you any kind of prep?

Nature has made the labor process fairly quick for every woman, but sometimes the pain can be too much for the woman to bear. During my interview, Cathy said that due to her prolonged labor period she experienced too much pain, in which she was given anesthesia, epidural, to help her relieve the excruciating pain that she was going through. For Jenifer and Margie, the pain was bearable. Therefore, they were not given any prep during their delivery. Unlike the women who gave birth in the 1990s and early 2000s like Jenifer and Margie, women who delivered in the past five years like Cathy experience high levels of anxiety and anxiousness which requires pain management medicine like epidurals to help keep them calm and relax during labor and delivery.

Who was present during the labor and delivery?

Women who give birth in the current generation like Cathy have numerous mediums that can help them through the labor and delivery process. However, those who gave birth in the 1980s and 1990s like Jenifer and Margie respectively relied on the experts who were responsible for the safety during childbirth (Kay et al., 2017). Cathy said that her husband, parents, and her best friend were around during her delivery. For Jenifer, however, she said that she gave birth when her husband was away on a mission, but the clinical experts were around to assist her. Margie, on the other hand, said that during her childbirth, her husband and mother were present.

Who took care of the baby at delivery?

Every woman said that the nurse or experts took care of the baby during delivery. Caregivers are holding a key place to safe delivery because they understand the risks involved during childbirth, which can help the mothers control or evade them (Kay et al., 2017).

How long did you take to recover after having a baby?

For Cathy, it took her eight days to fully recover. Jenifer and Margie took three and five days respectively to recover. Most of the pregnancy complications are experienced by women who delivery for the first time like Cathy. However, having given birth in the current generation associated with myriads of numerous mediums that can help during labor and delivery, Cathy felt that the experience may have been disturbing but not surprising.

Conclusion

Based on this interview, childbirth is increasingly becoming a paramount experience among women. Despite undergoing different experiences, both women acknowledged the importance of a support system and caregivers during the labor and delivery processes. Also, they both seem to have the same notion regarding childbirth that the whole experience was legitimized by the birth of their healthy babies.

Reference

Kay, L., Downe, S., Thomson, G., & Finlayson, K. (2017). Engaging with birth stories in pregnancy: a hermeneutic phenomenological study of women's experiences across two generations. BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 17(1), 283. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5582406/