The Birth of Elijah E. Valcin

My first son was born on December 31, 1996 at Downstate hospital in Brooklyn, New York.  The excitement of giving birth outweighed the pain during those first couple of hours at home.  Once my water broke we rushed to the hospital hoping for a quick birth.  However, it turned out to be the worse experience of my life.  I arrived at the hospital around 9 am and suffered labor pains for about eight hours before the doctors decided I needed to have a c-section.  Once the consent was documented and I met with the anesthiaologist they wheeled me into the operating room.  Next thing I hears was a doctor instructoring another woman in scrubs, every step of the operation.

After about an hour, I heard the sweetest sound of my son's voice.  They did not place him in my arms, they wheeled him away into another room.  I was placed in a recovery hall filled with empty beds and surgerical equipment.  None of my family members knew where I was until I was moved into my own room.  After five days in the hospital with a wound literally covered with gauze I was released and sent home.  Three weeks later, I was rushed back to the hospital because my incision began to bleed.  For the next six months a nurse was assigned to come to my home each morning to attend to my open wound.
Postpartum set in immediately due to the fact I was in so much pain I was unable to bond with my son.

The birth of my child was not in a country with insufficient medical care or doctors such as maybe Africa, however, I felt I was treated terribly.  Everyone assumed I was young according to the nurses who refused to help me out of bed to the restroom after removing my catheder, stating a seventeen year old like you can get up on her own, I was 22.  Yet I was treated as if I were in a country that did not respect woman.  I believe my son's illness three months later was the cause of complications I had during his birth.  On the day of his christianing party he developed an infection they could not identify.  He was hospitalized for seven days, and underwent multiple test the worst being a spinal tap.

Today he is a healthy fourteen year old, attending a prominent school and  making straight A's.  With the love of both myself, husband and other family members he has grown to be a wonderful child and I beileve he will be a great man.