The Birth - Part 3 (Conclusion)

Like you guys, everyone, most of all myself, want to know exactly what happened.

There are four facts that are irrefutable and that may shed light on what could have taken place:

1. My doctor was lying when she told me there will be pain medication. At any given point, she either knew there won't be any or she knew she couldn't be sure there will be some.

But she never indicated such sentiments to us. She figured she could just do the surgery and I'd have no choice but stay there and deal with everything accordingly.

2. The healthcare industry here is very very corrupt. (Think pain medications disappearing from certain hospitals... resulting in a short supply or unavailability for patients who need it).

3. I am apparently the third person to experience surgery without post operation pain relief.

The first two (a Chinese woman and a Canadian woman) weren't told by their doctors there will, for sure, be pain relief. They didn't discuss it at all prior to their c-sections. So, they didn't have the element of betrayal in their stories as I did.

They assumed (as it is a perfectly logical and normal assumption) that there will be some and got the surprise of their life.

4. Other women have delivered here (at a different hospital) and have had good experiences with adequate care that included proper pain management.

Am I angry at my doctor?

After I took my medication, I was fine.

I took one codeine pill every three hours. I took two Tylenol extra strength pills and one ibuprofen every four hours. I was a rousing self medication success. I was able to take care of my baby. The rest of the hospital stay went without any major incident (minor ones were unavoidable).

My husband and I discussed the incident over and over mostly from pure amazement that such a huge relapse of care happened to us even though we felt we had taken every possible step to ensure things went according to plan. We were also blown away by our doctor's behavior. We trusted her.

She made excuses but we never point blank asked her why she lied. We didn't see the point of that discussion as we (both sides) knew she lied and was afraid confronting her will impair the rest of the care I still needed to get from her (like coming back to get the stitches out after I left the hospital). We simply didn't want to piss her off.

I have been asked why I didn't have the baby in the US. It boils down to not wanting to split my family up for several months. Basically, I would have had to travel to the US at around 32-36 weeks of pregnancy. Even this would have been with a doctor's approval. I doubt any doctor would have written me a note with my early labor scares.

Then I would have had to stay in the US for a month or so post delivery. My husband can not take that much time off from work. I didn't want to separate my family for that long during such a special time.

Right now, I am incredibly happy and very tired.

During the rest of my hospital stay, I wondered a lot about what happened but at the same time I didn't want the kind of emotional pollution anger and bitterness can bring.

I did, however, want to tell the story as is.

Still, mothering is all I wanted to be doing then and now.

This is my family's time for transformation.

I want all of me to be there for it.
---------

Here are some pictures at the hospital after I got a hold of proper pain medication:

Drinking Atmit, special Ethiopian drink for new moms (and dads at our house. Hubby loves the stuff.)



They used this little cart to wheel the babies to and back from their daily bath. We called it the Bath Mobile.





Finally breastfeeding!