It annoys me that I still can't make the clicky polls work. I thought I saw one on another board a couple of weeks ago, but when I click on the option, it doesn't do anything. Oh well.
So a non-clicky poll. Warning: For those who have not yet given birth, you might not want to read this yet.
My question: If you had given birth 100 years ago, would you have survived?
In a clicky poll I would have given the options:
- Yes, definitely, as I had no interventions / complications.
- Probably yes, but I'm not certain since I had interventions/complications
- Really no clue since my interventions/complications could have gone either way
- Probably not, but I might have had a fighting chance
- Definitely not. Without modern medicine, I couldn't have survived.
- SS
Re: Would you have survived? PP Poll
Short answer: Probably not.
Longer answer:
First off, I wouldn't have been alive to even have DD2 because with DD1 I'm about 99.9% sure I would have died. I had HELLP and my body showed no signs of getting DD1 out on its own. My BP was sky high as were my liver enzymes, and without a diagnosis and c/s, there's no way I would have made it. My symptoms were also very vague, and honestly I only think it's because I went to a great university clinic that they recognized it as quickly as they did even in this day and age.
But let's pretend I did survive the first birth, I'm guessing I probably wouldn't have survived this one, although I would have had a fighting chance, at least. Since my uterus started to rupture during prodromal labor, I cannot imagine it would have held up for active labor. If it had ruptured back then, I doubt I would have lived, although I supposed there would have been a chance.
BFP1: DD1 born April 2011 at 34w1d via unplanned c/s due to HELLP, DVT 1 week PP
BFP3: DD2 born Feb 2013 at 38w4d via unplanned RCS due to uterine dehiscence
Really no clue since my interventions/complications could have gone either way
category.
I had a c/s since she was breech and I don't know if I would've went into labor on my own. Also I had to have a blood transfusion afterwards. The OB said I could've recovered without one but it would've taken 23 months for my iron to level out to normal levels.
2 to 3 months not 23.
With dd, I don't think she would have survived. She was a csection due to being breech. She was a very tiny baby, with a very large head. and breech vaginal births are safer when the baby is larger, at least that is my understanding.
With DS, we would have probably have been fine. My water broke, and I didn't go into labor right away, but I went to the hospital right away. I was already y over 3cm dilated, and had been having ad contractions the last few nights. With dd, I was 6 cm dilated not in labor.... So I was a bit nervous that I could have been really dilated, and had my baby on the side of the road. Glad I went in, once I started contracting, he was here in less than an hor. Anyways, long story short, while I got pitocin, it probably wouldn't have been necessary and labor would have probably started sooner or later.
DS1: Quinn - 10.22.10 and DS2: Cole - 01.18.13
Yes. This time around I had no interventions.
With DS1 I was induced only because I was 2 weeks late. So without intervention he would have been a post-term baby and perhaps may have had some of those complications.
I think I would have survived the birth, though I had a bad cases of pneumonia while I was pregnant that might very well have killed me. During birth I did have very high blood pressure but they were able to bring it down as soon as my son was born. So, probably, but not 100% certain.
However, my son was a preemie and I'm really not sure if he would have made it or not. I've actually thought of that a number of times and realized how blessed I am to live in a time AND a place where I had access to a NICU. It's not just women a 100 years ago, it's still a huge percentage of women living in third world conditions NOW.
Yes, I had no interventions (and I mean none, not even an iv, or blood pressure cuff, heart rate etc.)
Need tips for surviving cat allergies? Check out my bio!
DS born: February 2013
TTC #2: Nov. 14
Chemical pregnancy 09/16/15
BFP: 12/25/15 EDD: 09/04/16
Maybe, with good help from other women...
I had two OP babies, one ended in csection and one with forceps. However, with a longer allowance for pushing and a skilled midwife, I'd probably have survived. The interventions I had were more about hospital preferences than about me and baby.
Yes. I had a homebirth with absolutely no intervention. I didn't even have an ultrasound.
I think this poll is hard for the average woman to answer. There are legitimate cases where women would have died in childbirth, but (please don't flame me) I don't feel all of the emergencies we have now that end up in c/s are actually emergencies. I think that some doctors don't have the knowledge to birth a breech baby or a large baby (they aren't willing to allow a woman to move around in different positions to help the baby move down, etc.). I also think that the interventions we choose can cause some of the complications during delivery. It's just hard to say how differently many of our births would have turned out if we didn't have the interventions.
ETA - I would have survived my other three births too - and two were OP, one delivered at home. A skilled midwife makes all the difference.
I think for some it's hard to answer, which is why I had the middle 3 categories, but looking at the answers given so far, it looks like there are plenty of us who are pretty certain one way or the other (obviously there's no way to know for sure). Although I think you're right that some emergencies are brought about by interventions or lack of knowledge / fear of lawsuits on the part of the doctors, I think there are plenty of real emergencies. Childbirth wasn't considered risky for nothing.
ETA: I know that my perception on the risks of childbirth are colored by my experiences, both of which were caught in time but would have been medical emergencies if nothing had been done (although if I hadn't had the first c/s, I wouldn't have had the scar to start rupturing this time, so really this second risky birth was precipitated by the first).
BFP1: DD1 born April 2011 at 34w1d via unplanned c/s due to HELLP, DVT 1 week PP
BFP3: DD2 born Feb 2013 at 38w4d via unplanned RCS due to uterine dehiscence
Congrats to both my TTC buddies, Amberley18 and sb2006 on their beautiful babies!
ITA.
There are so many other things that would have been different for us 100 years ago too though. First, our diets. For many of us, our diets would have been better, as we wouldn't have been eating processed foods our entire lives. Perhaps that would have made us healthier overall and contributed to a better outcome. For some of us, our diets would have been worse 100 years ago because we wouldn't have had access to a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. Perhaps some of us wouldn't have had certain autoimmune issues or other problems that only seem to have become widespread in the last few decades. Or maybe others of us would have had other diseases in childhood that would have made things more complicated.
I think the one thing we can all agree on is that 100 years ago we all would have been more likely to be more active during pregnancy. For those of us working hard laboring jobs, that would have been a bad thing. For the others of us who simply walked more or did more chores around the house due to the lack of technology, it probably would have given us better outcomes.
With decades of increases in intervention, monitoring, increased c/s rates, etc., we aren't seeing better maternal and infant mortality rates in America. So I'm not sure it's the interventions that make a difference for MOST women.
This
I couldn't agree more!
First round of Clomid in May 2012= BFP #1, DD born January 2013
BFP #2 in January 2014, DS born September 2014
DD1- probably, but she might have been in trouble. My water broke without a hint of a contraction after 14 hours, so it depends on how long it would have taken for labor to progress and whether I would have gotten an infection.
DD2- yes. Her labor went just fine although I did stall at 7cm for about 4 hours and my epidural got things going again. I would imagine that if I had been walking around the hut for a few more hours things would have eventually moved past the plateau.
I hope that you didn't take what I said to mean that I believe c/s moms did something wrong. I do not believe that at all. And I would definitely get a c/s to save my child's life - I'm not anti-intervention at all. I just think there is a time and place for it. In your case, the c/s was obviously very necessary and I am so glad that you were able to get a c/s to save your child's life.
Like I said, I do believe there are legitimate emergencies. Your situation is very different from a situation where the doctor simply said the mom was "failing to progress" because she didn't fit the hospital standard of 1 cm every two hours or whatever they decide is "normal" and rush her off to a c/s because he or she wasn't willing to wait to see what would happen. And in the end that doctor will talk about how the c/s saved her life because her body just wouldn't dilate. But we don't really know if her body would have dilated or not because she wasn't given enough time.
I apologize if what I said offended you. I did not mean to blame mothers. I blame the system.
Speak for yourself! I would have been an aristocrat and only gotten exercise dancing at balls
I completely agree with this, holly. I have never been in labor, and the fact that I will never experience it makes me feel like I've missed out on the initiation ritual of motherhood. I had a spinal for both of my c/s, but I honestly still don't feel like I "birthed" my girls. Even though in retrospect I would have made the same decision both times because that was the safest option for me and my babies (and not just because of FTP), I'm still sad that I won't ever get to see how I am during labor, how I handle it, or feel that sense of accomplishment that I assume one has when one successfully births vaginally. :-/
BFP1: DD1 born April 2011 at 34w1d via unplanned c/s due to HELLP, DVT 1 week PP
BFP3: DD2 born Feb 2013 at 38w4d via unplanned RCS due to uterine dehiscence
Make a pregnancy ticker
"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?...But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:26-27&33-34
I would have survived. I had drugs, but those were the only interventions. I believe I would have lived, I just would have been in a lot more pain.
Of course, if I died of an infection from my 2nd degree tear, then I would have died.
I would have survived. I had drugs, but those were the only interventions. I believe I would have lived, I just would have been in a lot more pain.