Motherhood across Borders by Gabrielle Oliveira

Author:Gabrielle Oliveira
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: NYU Press

“Gabi, how is she going to give birth here?”

That was the question Ronald asked me not too long ago after I received a frantic call from him asking me to come to a Manhattan hospital where his wife was about to give birth. He felt that something was very wrong. “I don’t understand what the doctors are doing and I think she is going to have a C-section, and she has never had one,” he said. “Can you come?”

When I arrived at the hospital, a haggard-looking Ronald directed me to a security counter where I could sign in to see Brianna. But Ronald himself kept his distance from the counter and avoided eye contact with any of the security staff. When I arrived on the sixth floor, Brianna told me she was in tremendous pain. She had been admitted the night before, but still was only dilated three centimeters. “They did some tests and there is green fluid. I think it has something to do with my liver,” she said.

When I asked the doctors about the green fluid, they said the baby was so stressed that there was meconium in her placenta. I asked one doctor what this could mean for Brianna and the baby, and she said the worst-case scenario was that it could be fatal. “But don’t worry,” she tried to reassure me, “that’s not her case.” The main doctor asked me if I were the translator; I said no. I requested one for Brianna, but no one ever came. In the couple of hours that I spent in her room, several different doctors came to check on her progress. With minimal explanation and introduction, they examined her; Brianna was uncomfortable, gripping the sheets as doctors examined her.

The doctors eventually decided to break Brianna’s water to induce birth, but it didn’t work. Two doctors entered the room and in English and Spanish, alternating, one doctor told her she would do the procedure to help accelerate the birth, since she was diabetic and diagnosed as “high risk” for her pregnancy. At the time I had no children of my own and knew little to nothing about interventions during labor and delivery. So I translated the best I could for Brianna. After the doctor told her they would break her water, he exited the room. She asked me, “do you think it will hurt?” I had no idea. When the doctor returned, she inserted a needle through Brianna’s vagina to reach the amniotic sac, which surrounds and cushions the baby during pregnancy. Brianna was caught by surprise when she felt the pain, but did not say a word and just squeezed my hand tightly.

“She handles pain very well, she doesn’t scream or complain,” I overhead one doctor tell a resident. Brianna had not been screaming or even grunting at all, even though tears welled in her eyes. She had wanted to ask for painkillers, but was too afraid it would hurt her baby. Through it all she had tried to smile at doctors and nurses and struggled to say “thank you.

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