Baby, you are the ultimate labor of love
Dear Readers,
Today we learn more about giving birth, a new lawsuit attempting to eradicate the watchlist, and about a new website with warnings for pregnant women and new moms.
Sincerely,
Nargis Rahman
Saa Nasta Newsletter
The labor of giving birth
By Guest Contributor Marzia Chowdhury
During the first three months of Owais’s life, I was on maternity leave and got to spend every waking second with him. It was nice not to have any other worldly worries and just be able to focus on my son.
During this time, I was also in recovery from giving birth physically and mentally. It was traumatic.
Labor started at home on Saturday around 6 p.m. I started timing the contractions and they came in five-minute increments. Those first few hours I labored at home with my husband’s help. Around 10 p.m. we headed to the hospital, 15 minutes away. I was five centimeters dilated and was checked in immediately.
I decided to get the epidural. It was probably the best decision I’ve made. Once I got the epidural I was able to rest for a bit.
The next day around noon I was nine centimeters dilated and it was show time! A single nurse walked in to see me through my delivery. I always assumed that there would be multiple people in the room, including my OB.
My mom and husband were on either side of me, and I started pushing for two hours. There was no baby in sight. I was in so much pain and physically exhausted. I cried for them to stop.
My mom noticed my baby’s heart rate was dropping. She rang the alarm!
Within minutes, several nurses and the on-call OB came into the delivery room. The delivery was vacuum-assisted, a vacuum was used to move the baby through the birth canal. Another doctor pushed down on my belly and my baby came flying out!
On February 5 at 3 p.m., Owais was born.
Soon after I was diagnosed with postpartum preeclampsia and was put on bed rest, I had to take magnesium every hour for 24 hours. I was released on the third day.
It was a February day but it was warm out that day. It was the perfect day to bring Owais home. My husband and I were staying downstairs in our makeshift bedroom in our living room with Owais’s bassinet nearby. My husband took two weeks off from work. He did all the parental duties while I rested. I stayed in bed for that first week besides going to the bathroom.
That was a whole other ball game. I wish I knew the mental strength it would take me to simply use the bathroom, something I’ve done a million times.
Here are the things I used in post-delivery recovery:
Always Discreet adult diapers/sanitary napkins: At this time you’re still losing blood so these items help contain them.
I would also suggest wearing compression leggings just to keep everything in place.
Postpartum Ice Packs: I’d keep three ice packs in the freezer at all times. The ice pack goes in a cloth pack so the ice doesn’t touch your skin directly.
Tucks Medicated Cooling Pads with Witch Hazel: Put these on top of ice packs. The cooling pads cleanse out the vaginal area.
Dermoplast: Spray the Dermoplast in the affected area. It helps with pain and swelling.
Peri bottle: Use the bottle to clean up after using the bathroom.
I would call these items the holy grail of postpartum care.
During those first three months, Owais slept, ate, and used the bathroom. He slept in three-hour increments and while he slept, I slept too. It was like a routine and there were no surprises. It was the same routine every night.
Labor and delivery wasn’t what I imagined it to be. I had romanticized it. It took months for me to overcome the physical and emotional effects. You can plan and prepare, but never be fully ready for it.
Community News:
This week the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a lawsuit against 29 government entities. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 12 plaintiffs. The watchlist was created following the 9/11 terror attacks to find suspected terrorists. During a press conference on Tuesday at CAIR Michigan’s Canton office, Lena Masri, the CAIR National Litigation Director and General Counsel, told Nargis Rahman for WDET that the watchlist disproportionality impacts American Muslims. There are, “1.3 million names, and 98.3% of those names are Muslim,” she says. Masri says the lawsuit is unconstitutinoal and there is no hard and fast way to get off of it. That’s why CAIR is asking people’s names to be removed off the list, and the watchlist to be eradicated.
The Growing Michigan Together Council and the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding hosted an American Muslim Town Hall at the Arab American National Museum to get feedback from thought leaders on education, job retention and infrastructure in the state. It’s a part of 70 listening sessions that will take place before the end of the year. Recommendations will be made to the Council in October. The Council reports to the Governor, Michigan House of Representatives and Michigan Senate in December.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services launched the “Hear Her Michigan'' website to inform pregnant and new moms about warnings of pregnancy related deaths. The website provides urgent maternal health warning signs. Over 700 women die each year in the U.S. In 2021 the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies program expanded postpartum care in Michigan.