Birth Story of Hillary Lawson Hill

Hillary Lawson Hill
November 28, 1992

Our daughter Hillary was born 3 weeks early on November 28, 1992. Because I had had some premature labor at 7 months, my husband had been cut off from regular intimacy. He convinced me that morning to get the baby born with "natural" induction. I didn't dream that it would actually work.

My water broke (gushed) at 4pm in the middle of Service Merchandise. Shoppers were looking at me as though I had given birth right there. My husband drove us immediately to Lovelace Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was having contractions about 5 minutes apart and medium intensity. At the time though, I thought they were very strong.

The midwife did a check and told me I was about 1cm dialated. How disappointing. An interesting thing happened when she did the check, however; the baby's heart rate went sky-high. She said that the head felt too soft, so they brought in an ultrasound machine and discovered that the baby was breech.

I opted for a spinal instead of an epidural, and by 7pm I was having a c-section. My husband was allowed in because it was not an emergency ceserean. I was able to watch the entire operation from the reflection in the or lights. It was no more difficult than watching an operation on tv; it looked like it was happening to someone else. My husband told me the doctor was doing a lot of tugging and pulling. He was surprised at how rough the doctor was in getting Hillary out.

I, of course, did not get to hold the baby right away, but my husband did. He held her near my head, and I cried. My husband went to the nursery with Hillary because I was afraid of leaving her alone; too many horror stories of babies being stolen out of nurseries. I was flat on my back when Hillary was brought to me and could not sit up because of the anestesia. I tried nursing her, but that did not go too well because of the position.

I was thrilled and not disappointed in my cesarean. Once I knew it was going to be surgery, I knew that the baby would be born within 30 minutes, and that was an exciting feeling.

Read Hillary's 5yo update.

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