My Experience of Child Birth

My Experience of Child Birth
  I don't have any children yet, but it is on my to do list. 😊  I did have the pleasure of being part of my cousin's birthing experience three years ago. She gave birth to a 5 lbs beautiful little girl.   Luckily her labor was only a couple of hours.  When she first got to the hospital around midnight she was already asking for some drugs/ epidural.
  The doctor told her that she needed to wait  because she wasn't  dilated enough and it can slow down the process. When my cousin asked again. It may have been an hour later, they told her that she was to far into her labor to receive the epidural. While she waited they allowed for her to sit on an exercise ball to help relieve the pain. My cousin had told me that the ball really did help with the pain. Now it was time for the birth it was around 5 am. The process was so amazing to me, just seeing how the human body can give to bring this little beautiful girl into the world. When it is my turn I will really like to try a water birth. When it is my time who knows I maybe asking for an epidural myself. lol

Births Around the World
  While researching there were many interesting things that I have learned about how people in other countries deal with child birth. Tradition played a major role of how the child is brought into the world to after the child is here. What stood out for me was Korea. The women in Korea are urged to only look at beautiful things as seeing ugly things during labor means that the baby will be born ugly.
   Also as a women is in labor she can not scream or shout it is considered to be shameful. A women is expected to be quiet through the birth as it is believed that silence is required to focus the energy into the birthing process. That seemed strange to me so I started looking on YouTube and other sites to see if this information was correct. When I was on you tube there were a few video's that I watched and the women really did not call out or really make any sound during delivery. One lady actually began crying and the nurse/doctor told her to stop crying. That was a shock to me!!
   The two articles that I read also talked about after the baby is born that seven days afterwards the baby is brought gifts and there are different items hung on the front door, letting people know that they can not come to the house. It is very interesting how far we came in the world but some cultures  still want to incorporate the traditional ways of their culture.

1. Differences and Similarities: The U.S, the length of stay in the hospital is three days unless there is other problems. Korea, the stay is about a week and the birthing experience tend to be more traditional. What is similar is that the doctor will give you a choice of going natural or having an epidural. The U.S the women can scream or cry to let out their pain as of Korea the women are made to feel same if they scream or cry. 

References

Asian Info. (2000) Births . www.asianinfo.org  

Evans, L (2010). Baby and pregnancy traditions around the world. www.parentscanada.com