Due Date Optional?

So here’s a March of Dimes PSA. It’s only 30 seconds. Watch it. 

When did scheduling a delivery become an option?

Obviously I know that sometimes pregnancies don’t go as planned. Unfortunately there may be complications with the baby or the mother – or both, so scheduling a Cesarean delivery or an
induction would be necessary. But when did it become okay to schedule a delivery early – before the 40 weeks of gestation are complete? That was never an option for me. Maybe it was an option, but I sure didn’t know about it.

Even if I had known, I’m sure I would have chosen to carry my babies until I went into natural labor anyways. My first was two weeks late and under the doctor’s recommendation we induced. A Thursday evening appointment to start the progestin gel turned into an all-nighter. Little Miss Monica was born about 12 hours later.

In doing what I thought was best for the baby, I declined the epidural and took only the whatever it was
that was supposed to take the edge off. Knowing what I know now, I’m assuming this is a very funny thing for the nurses in the maternity ward. “Ha ha ha! She turned down the epidural! Ha ha ha! What a fool!” 
 
Epidurals were always thought to have an effect on the baby when the mother took the epidural during labor. And I really don’t know, I suppose they could, but I would say that they were definitely not lasting effects. After three normal, healthy pregnancies and doing what I thought was right, I gave birth – with extreme pain – to three normal, healthy, beautiful babies.

During my pregnancy with my fourth child, my husband and I had a “sane”moment when we decided to stop at four. And since he is such a big baby when it comes to doctors and needles, I planned on being the one to undergo the voluntary sterilization. In my planning, I figured that since this will be my last child and since I would be going under the knife shortly after giving birth, I would go ahead and get the epidural. My
obstetrician promised me that, with the epidural, I would be able to get my tubes tied without having to be put completely under.

Well, as was usual for me and my labors, contractions began in the evening hours. My three kids were in bed and I was laboring as quietly as I could. It had always been a fear of mine that I would show up to the hospital only to have them tell me “Go home, lady. It’s gonna be a while. A loooong while.”  So I labored. All. Night. My husband finally got antsy enough where he insisted we call Mom and then go to the hospital without waiting for her to get to our house. (Keep in mind, the kids were sleeping soundly and we did wake our oldest to let her know we were going and to wait up for Grandma. She was 14 at the time and she only had to wait for roughly 25 minutes. It’s all good.)

The drive to the hospital I really don’t remember, though it was late January. I do remember my husband
hitting every bump. When we got to the hospital, our triage nurse was a mom that I knew from our son’s football team. Thankfully (or not) I was in too much pain to feel “awkward” about her doing her thing. She went about her business and treated me with gentleness and courtesy and asked if we had any special
requests. I chirped right up and said,“I’ll be getting my tubes tied, so I will take the epidural just as soon as I can.” 

After the triage unit in emergency we were admitted to our own room in the labor and delivery unit. It wasn’t much longer that the anesthetist showed up to administer the epidural…..

IT. WAS. AMAAAZZING!



It is of my own utmost personal opinion that epidurals should be a menu option at any and all salons – nationwide. Best time of my life!

I didn’t feel a thing. I rested “like a baby” between contractions. It was the best however-many-hours of
my life. (Okay, maybe not THE best. But still, a close second?) I didn’t hear my husband talking about football scores with the doctor. I didn’t hear him watching the monitor, “Oh, here’s another big one!” Though I did finally hear “It’s time to push.”

“What? Really?”

I couldn’t feel a thing. One push and …. 
 
Next thing I knew, I had a baby in my arms and she was just as perfect and beautiful as my other three children. Gorgeous, beautiful, angel from above. My sweet baby.
 
(I will save my tubal ligation story for another time.)
 
Though I suppose I’m not really making a point, I’d like to say that it just baffles me beyond belief that pregnant women would not realize how much risk they are putting on their babies’ health by choosing, for their own selfish reasons, to give birth earlier than nature deems the right amount of time. The female body is made to begin contractions at exactly the right time.
 
I don’t know if I just had old-fashioned doctors, but scheduling my deliveries for when it was an opportune time in my datebook was NEVER mentioned to me. My doctor always had a plan: If you go into labor…. then do this; If you go into labor at that time….. then do this…. 
 
It was always clear, cut and dried. There will be no giving birth early just to save a few stretch marks!
 
My hope, of course, is that all babies would be born healthy; full-term, as nature intended. And I know that there are times when this is just not possible. However, to forego a full-term pregnancy for just whatever reason is, in my opinion: Purely Selfish.
 
What’s your opinion? Feel free to leave comments here on My Super Mid-Life, or on my Facebook page, or on
Twitter.

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