Birth Story of Linda Gayle

This is the story of how my third child, Linda Gayle, was born. I found out I was pregnant May 1976, and knew immediately that I would need a c-section. When I was younger, about 9 yrs old, I was hit by a car, and had to have my pelvis wired because of a bad break. I had had twins previous and they were delivered by C-Section 3 1/2 yrs before.

Everything was going pretty smoothly all through the pregnancy. I hit my 7th month, and my dr noticed 3 heartbeats, and assumed it would be triplets. My husband was so shocked, he went to get a vasectomy the following week. LOL.

My due date was January 27, 1977. My Dr wanted to perform the C-Section on January 20, 1977, because they did not want me to go into labor at all. At that time they gave you lateral cuts for C-sections, and so from then on you would not be able to have natural , or vaginal , births. My dr had been on vacation the week of January 17th, and would not be back till the day of my c-section.

On January 17th, at around 5pm, I went into to labor and started having contractions. My husband had just left for night classes for college, and I was home alone with my twin sons who were 3 1/2 at the time. I called the hospital and they told me to just time contractions and wait till they were 10 mins apart. I explained about my situation, and the nurse just told me that my dr wasn't on call, and that I should just wait to come in. From 5pm that night till 12am, I just sat there timing contractions and drinking Dr Pepper, and smoking (at that time we didnt know smoking was not healthy for the baby). I was so nervous, and kinda scared.

My husband came in at midnight and I explained to him what was going on, and he said I should try to sleep. He fluffed my pillows and I went to lay down , but couldn't sleep because of the contractions, which were getting stronger and coming quicker. I got up to use the bathroom about 4-5am and I was bleeding. I believe now it was my water breaking, but there was a ton of blood,and I screamed. I thought I was losing the baby. My husband climbed out of bed and seen the blood and started calling the hospital, my mother, my sister, someone to get the kids, and then we left for the hospital.

We got to the hospital, and they didn't explain to me about the blood. They didn't let me know much. I was admitted and told they were trying to contact my OB. I was having really hard contractions, and I could feel her trying to push against my pelvis. After waiting till around noon, my OB came and finally prepped me for the surgery. At 1:06pm, I had my beautiful baby girl. I named her Linda Gayle. I thank God that she was born healthy, because I was told later that she was pushing so hard to get out that she could have died, or I could have died. I am just thankful that it was over and I have my boys and my girl. :)

Loretta T from Oklahoma