What Birth Is Like Here

This is what birth is like here for a poor woman. I have been told by a compassionate neonatologist that this is not how birth is here for all women, this is just what I am seeing at  the poor pubblic hospital,  Jose Maria Cabral Hosptial.  If you can afford about $500 US you would go to the private hospital, where I am told it is much better.

A woman walks into the labor room escorted by a medical resident   or nurse, with her pajamas on and an IV already started.  She has been admitted.  She is put in a bed that has a sheet if she is lucky.  The labor room is a large hospital room with 12 beds lined up.  You may be put next to woman  in early labor or one screaming  in transition.  You will have left your husband ,or boyfriend, or mother at the door earlier and you will not see them again for at least 24 hours after the birth.

You are told to lie down, on your back, and to not get up.  No food or drink is offered. Medical students come through often, stand in groups of 10-20 and watch you labor while the doctor teaches. The lights are strong and bright and there are only a few nurses and a few doctors.  The room is noisy.  Every few hours you will be greeted by a student or doctor to be  checked. There are two bathrooms in the ward and to say they are filthy is an understatement.  Many women are lying in bed in blood and feces.  There are  no chux pads or new sheets for you. If you are smart you have brought your own water, several changes of clothes, and your own sheets.  You labor flat on your back, listening to women all around you scream for their mothers during hard contractions. You don't get to change positions, have food or water, or are even told your cervical dilation after you have been checked.  You don't have choices here.

When you are fully dilated you will be told to "Puje!" (push!).  You will push flat on your back.  If you are lucky you will deliver fast on your labor bed in front of anyone in the ward. Here there are no big climbs up a wheelchair to get into the unadjustable delivery table.There are no black garbage bags to lie on or stir ups, like the delivery room has.  And here you will get to hold your baby for two or three minutes;most delivery room births allow you to see the baby for a second and the baby is whisked away.  If you ask to hold your baby you are laughed at..  You are lucky if you finally get to hold your baby four  hours later.  No one even tells you the sex  of the baby or if he/she is healthy and ok.

If you are like most women you will be taken to the delivery room by wheelchair when  delivery is close.  You will be  told to climb up on the table by standing on your wheelchair.  You will lie on a black garbage bag and put your feet in the stirups.  You are told to push.  You will be given very few insturctions and probably have a episitiomy.  When your baby is born it will be held up immediately by the  ankles (like a 1950's birth) and carried off.  You will then be given pitocin and deliver the placenta with much pulling and tugging by the doctor.  You will be stitched if needed, cleaned up, and taken to the postpartum ward. Here you will lie for several hours and if you are lucky receive some news of how your baby is.

This is how birth is here.