My Peronal Birthing Experience

I was 16 weeks pregnant with twins in 2005, I lost one twin (my son). I was told by the doctors that I needed to make it to at least 24 weeks because the other baby would have a better chance of survival. I was hospitalized numerous times that I lost count. My specialist for high risk pregnancies did a procedure where they sewed my cervix up called a cervical cerclage. The reason was to hold the remaining baby inside because I was threatening another miscarriage, I had previously had one the year before. I had to go to 2 different doctors every week. I was on bed rest since I lost the first twin and remained on bed rest until I had the other baby. There were so many things happening to my body, I developed gestational diabetes while pregnant in which I had to stick myself 3 times daily to check my numbers after each meal.  After many hospital visits my husband and I were exhausted but I made it to 30 weeks. I was still too early and there were risk involved. When I had my daughter by caesarean she weighed 3 pounds 5 ounces. As soon as I had her, they let me hold her very briefly; she was rushed to another local hospital that has a NICU facility she needed. I remember this event because I had never experienced something so amazing and sad at the same time. I was an emotional roller coaster and didn’t know what to do but pray. I knew when I saw her that she would be alright because I prayed many prayers that my baby would be ok. I still had her 10 weeks early and so many things could have been wrong with her such as birth defects, limbs not formed, or organ failure of some kind. Nothing was wrong with her but she did have to stay in the NICU unit for over a month until she gained some weight. I am thankful that the hospital here was able to accommodate us for her low birth rate. My daughter’s name is Morgan and although I was told she would always be behind because of her being born early, she’s far from it. She is a very active 10 year old who loves everyone. I am very busy with her, she has many activities she enjoys some of her activities are: She’s a Girl Scout (3 years), plays the violin, goes to tutoring every Tuesday (2 years), she wanted to take a break from swim and ballet this year in which she has done both consistently for the last 5 years and now she is going to be a cheerleader.

In Denmark people spend way less money for health care. Although I had insurance I was still billed for various things and I will never forget they accidently sent me a bill for $98,000 for my daughter’s hospital stay for that month. In the United States we have our babies in hospitals. Women in Denmark can choose to have their baby at home or in the hospital where a doctor isn’t needed unless they think a problem or some sort of complication will arise. While pregnant a midwife attends to you regularly and is their when you give birth. After you have the baby a home nurse contacts you and start making home visits to check on you and monitor the babies health during the first year of the child’s life. A mother can stay home after having a baby for a total of 310 days.