My Childbirth and Around the World

When my husband and I decided to have kids, I told him that I wanted to have all my kids by the time I was 30. I decided that we would have 3. Ironically, I was 31 when I gave birth to my youngest in Aviano, Italy. My husband was in the Air Force and we were living in Italy. I loved it. I was being seen on base which serviced American Military doctors. It was pretty routine compared to my other early childbirths if that in fact that can happen. Just because we were living in Italy, the whole situation was being treated like a regular American situation in comparison. Now if there were any complications I was told I would have to go off base, and did not want that to happen because their facilities were different from ours. This was just word of mouth from other mom's who had the pleasure of having their babies in an Italian hospital. Moving on to my birthing experience, my daughter was actually not like my other 2 births. She was not early like they were so I was quite mad about that. However, just like all the others, my husband was not around during the pregnancy part, he however, was able to be sent home for the delivery. She came on my due date which I was not really happy about in more ways than one. The first being that when I was told I was pregnant and her date was October 7, 2009, I was not happy. Because I like my mother in law just fine I did not want a baby on her birthday, however. Of course I called her and told her I was having the baby on her birthday but not to hold her breath because I had NO intentions of being pregnant that long. Little did I know this little girl had other plans.
 Fast forward to October 7, 2009. Finally, my husband was home and on this day I was particularly unhappy, because I was still pregnant and did all that I could to have this kid already. I walked a lot, did the due, I even had my membrane striped TWICE, and still not kid. However, it so happens that at 9:30am I had a doctors appointment. My husband and I went in the doctor checked my cervix an told me that I was about 4 centimeters dilated but now he helped me and now I was 5. This bit of news put me over the moon because I knew that meant I was going to have a baby. He asked me if I wanted to have this kid today. I told him HECK YEAH and that I would race him upstairs to labor and delivery. I did the moon walk out the room. My husband just laughed and followed. Did I mention that my oldest daughter was 10 at this time and did not go to school because I wanted her to witness childbirth, kind of a life lesson for future behavior. (It worked by the way, no kids from her, yet and she is almost 18). Going into this I already knew that I was going to have an epidural. When it came time to get it put in, I should have won an academy award for my performance, remember my daughter was in the room and I had her over my shoulder watching the whole thing. Her presence was was allowed. I know that there was a time when this was not allowed but on this particular day it was ok.  Many might think I am crazy for having her in the room, but I am a mom. I have been working with kids for several years at this time and knew how kids can be. Afterall, I was once one too, not that I had a teenage pregnancy or judge those who do but I know how things go.
Anyhow, on this day we had a beautiful healthy baby girl. Nothing major or of any concerns for me. Oh yeah, did I mention, that not only did I have my daughter and husband in the room I also had like 6 other staff members in the room. They wanted to witness a childbirth. I was over 30, not shy, over being pregnant and just did not care. It was in the name of medical science after all.
The interesting part came of giving birth to a baby in another country came a few days later. I had to go down to the town's city hall and fill out additional paperwork for giving birth. It has something to do with our SOFA status agreement with the Italian government. Anyhow, I had to fill out her name in this humongous (not kidding on the size) book. I also had to fill out a paper saying that she would never change her name. I then looked at her and told her, hope you like it, sorry if you don't but according to this your stuck kid.
Over all my birthing experience was fine. One we definitely tell stories about. Just recently, one of the extra people I had in the room, I ran into at another base hospital and we laughed and talked. She has a child of her own. I showed her pictures of how my daughter looks now. It was a pretty cool moment, not going to lie.


Since I shared my birthing experience in Italy, I want to share what I learned about giving birth in Italy. From my own experience and knowledge, women tend to be older when giving birth in Italy. We know that babies are at a higher risk for things when parents are older. However, in Italy it seemed like the norm for moms to be older. Although, when they do decide to have kids they tend to be back to back if more than one kid is planned. In Italy, the country is very family oriented and honestly cost of living is expensive so it is normal for the kids to live close to the parents. In many cases they live on the same property but in their own home. The facility that I am familiar with is in the Pordenone province of Italy. I heard the environment is very sterile and not very home like, like our facilities. The staff appeared not to be as friendly either. I wonder if that had something to do with the language barrier that they encountered. Doing some research on the internet. I see they use Doulas and midwives, similar to our American society. They utilize the baby room similar to how things were done in our older days. That kind of environment is quite normal. Today, in our country we have an area where the baby is taken for measurements and things but no primarily the baby is kept near the mother at all times for bonding. At least that is what I experienced, and have experienced since my last childbirth.