fostering the humanistic practice of medicine publishing personal accounts of illness and healing encouraging health care advocacy

fostering the humanistic practice of medicine publishing personal accounts of illness and healing encouraging health care advocacy

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Just Braxton Hicks

The body knows what it knows.

I was about to be a first-time mom, in a hospital bed for a few weeks on bed rest for preeclampsia. I tried to catch a nurse’s attention without actually pressing the call bell. When someone brought my lunch, I told them – I think I’m having contractions. They pushed the call bell.

The nurse was surprised. Baby wasn’t due for two weeks.

“It’s just a little Braxton Hicks,” she said with a smile. “Try to relax.”

So I tried. Pulled out the crossword puzzles. Started up a conversation with my roommate. Looked out the window and counted the crows, black against the winter sky.

At the 7:00 o’clock shift change, another nurse popped her head in the door.

“I think I’m having contractions. Since this morning,” I said.

The nurse looked at my chart, an eyebrow raised.

“Well, your doctor just happens to be here checking on another patient. I’ll ask her to stop by.”

My doctor came in, dressed in an emerald green dress. She was headed to a dinner party. She wasn’t convinced of anything but promised to come in after her party.

At ten o’clock, the lights were turned off, and I kept my mouth shut.

At eleven-thirty, I got brave and pushed the call button. A nurse came and I explained that the contractions had intensified.

“I’ll take a look,” she said.

I nodded.

“Oh,” she said, her head popping up from between my knees. “You are eight centimeters dilated!”

I was moved to a birthing room and someone called my family. I was at ten centimeters by then, ready to push. A young resident doctor came in. I asked how many babies he had delivered.

He grinned. “Well, yours will be the first one by myself!”

Luckily, a moment later my doctor appeared, throwing a surgical gown over her dress. One final push and baby was born.

Baby was whisked away and after some long minutes was returned to me. We snuggled skin to skin and both began learning the process of nursing.

I received two great gifts that day. One was a healthy baby. The other was the knowledge that I could trust my own body no matter what. That faith has been questioned many times, but I always believed my body, and it has always been right.

Michele Rule
Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

 

 

 

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Comments

3 thoughts on “Just Braxton Hicks”

  1. Bravo. So relieved this worked out for you.
    Braxton Hicks helped get my mother admitted into a hospital the night before a big snow storm and before she began hemorrhaging. Had we not already been in a hospital in which an emergency C-section could be performed within minutes, my mother would have bled out, and I would have drowned in utero.
    Thanks for sharing your story. We know our bodies best.

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