Having a baby in Barcelona
I had my first child, my son Maddox, in a foreign country. I know it's a bit crazy, but I didn't know what to expect, I had never birthed a baby before. It was a traumatic experience for me. After weeks of trying to get into the Spanish healthcare system, we finally did, by a miracle, so everything was free, which was amazing. I remember my contractions starting around 10pm. I didn't want to go to the hospital and then be sent home. I wanted a sure sign that this baby was on his way out. At 7am, my water broke and so Calvin called a taxi. I was having pretty strong contractions at the time and the taxi hit a roadblock. “Were we going to make it to the hospital in time?” we worried. The taxi driver turned sharply up a side road and we arrived at the hospital in time. I was dilated to 6cm, and I was begging them for drugs. “Where is your paperwork that says you can have an epidural?” they asked. “What? !” I exclaimed. Supposedly I was supposed to have brought it with me, which clearly, I didn't know. They had to retest me, and over an hour later they were giving me the epidural. But literally right after, they told me, “It's time, you have to push!” “No no, you're pushing wrong,” they told me. Calvin sat in the corner praying. He couldn't even look, because he was so traumatized by the whole ordeal. “The baby's heart rate is dropping! We have to do an episiotomy.” they told us. It was all a blur, but Maddox was pushed and pulled out. We heard no crying, he appeared purple and they swiftly took him away. “Is my baby alive?” I thought to myself. After what was probably less than two minutes but felt like an eternity, they brought him back in. He was healthy and crying like crazy. “Check to see what it is,” they told me. I was so exhausted that I almost didn't even care at that point, nevertheless, we looked and saw we had a baby boy. Two days later, when leaving the hospital, I was in a lot of pain, and I remember seeing this Spanish lady wearing yoga pants practically prancing with her new baby out of the hospital. In contrast, I was hobbling like a 95 year old woman and couldn't even carry my baby. Life just isn't fair sometimes. We are thankful for a healthy boy.
Keywords
Like crazy a lot.
Contractions the woman's uterus preparing to have birth, usually painful.
Dilation the women's cervix opening to prepare for birth. On a scale of 1-10cm: 10cm=the woman is ready to push the baby out. Epidural anesthesia to numb the lower part of the body, especially used in childbirth.
Nevertheless in spite of that; notwithstanding; all the same.
