Sa’Myah W.

Hi, my name is Sa’Myah, and I was 18 years old, and I was pregnant and had my daughter at 19 years old. I did have a doula when I was pregnant, but I still experienced something so traumatizing as I gave birth. I was told that I would be induced. I went to the hospital on Wednesday, April 26, to get induced.

They were really sweet once I had arrived. They were really patient with me. But once I got there and got in the room, I got set up.

I got myself together and got in the room and got settled. I got myself together and got comfortable. And that’s when the contractions started to begin. At the beginning, they were really mild, but they weren’t too bad.

The next day, they offered to break my water so she could breach and move down naturally on her own.

After they did that, they gave us some time, and my baby still wasn’t trying to come. Then they also offered me the Pitocin, and I didn’t know anything about it, so I took them up on their offer.

They gave me some squats to help me. They also made sure I took laps in their hallway, sat in a jacuzzi, did different exercises, and more to try to get my baby out.

On Friday, that evening or night, I dilated up so far, and the contractions were really painful, so I asked for an epidural. I went to sleep for a little bit.

Then I can remember, by the next morning, which was Saturday, April 29, at 9 a.m., them telling me that my daughter doesn’t like the position I’m laying in, and her heart rate keeps dropping, and I will have to get an emergency C-section since I’m at risk.

But I was really nervous about everything. Like, I didn’t have any other option at this point.

So they rushed me and my child’s father to the surgery room, and then they got started immediately.

Now, I did understand that they told me I would feel pressure, but it felt like I felt more than pressure.

I felt the doctor cut through layers into my skin, and I was really feeling it without anesthesia at this time.

They were also telling me that they couldn’t give me any more medicine because it would go to baby’s head, and I just felt helpless. And the pain and everything that I was going through, the medicine wearing off.

She did keep motivating me herself, but the male doctors continued to converse as they stood over me on their phones or watching as I laid there crying and screaming the entire 45 minutes.

My daughter eventually came, and she was born really healthy, and she was in my arms, and I was good after that. But a majority of the time, it was really painful.