Going into emergency cesarean surgery is not the ideal plan for a pregnant woman, but let's say that when you are given these tests in life, you have to face them in the best way possible and trust the people who are with you.
If you haven't read the first part, I suggest you do so before continuing, you can do so by clicking here .
I'll start by telling you that once my gynecologist confirmed to me that an emergency cesarean section would be necessary. At that moment, so many questions went through my head: Will they survive? Will there be any after-effects from being born prematurely? Could I have done something else to keep them inside me longer? How am I going to breastfeed them when they're so small?... and so many other questions that I can now answer and hopefully help other mothers who are going through the same thing.
When I started the paperwork for the cesarean, they asked me if I had chosen the pediatricians, since in the case of Panama, you must have one pediatrician per baby. In our case, we needed two for the cesarean, and then, in normal consultations, one is enough. And well, I can tell you that at that time I had no options, since I was 3 months away, so it was not on my priority list as a first-time mother. Now I consider that it is something that we should look for from the beginning to visit the doctors and be sure of who will be the doctor that will accompany you in the life of your baby from birth.
Luckily, my gynecologist's brother is a pediatrician and was on duty at the hospital, so he was one of the doctors. His name is Dr. Carlos Vega and he was also assisted by Dr. Jesualda Sánchez. They are both Neonatologist Pediatricians. I will never be able to thank them enough for what they did for my children. In the end, Dr. Vega was our primary pediatrician and we are still with him today.
On the subject of pediatricians, to all the mothers who are reading this and are pregnant, make appointments with pediatricians as soon as possible to get to know them and choose them in advance. It is something that is best to have ready for any unforeseen events or consultations, especially to know if that doctor is really aligned with your objectives on the day of delivery. Another day we will do a special post on how to choose a pediatrician, I think it is very important.
Continuing the story, I tell you that when the time came, they took me through the hospital corridors with contractions, hunger, fear, pain and with two babies who wanted to come out much earlier than expected. Can you imagine the movie scene?
In less than two hours, the 4 doctors (main gynecologist, assistant gynecologist, and the 2 pediatricians) were ready, as well as many nurses. I was lucky that my godfather, who is an obstetrician-gynecologist, could be with me the whole time. My husband could not be inside because of the delicate nature of the operation and the serious condition of the babies when they were taken out, since they would have to undergo several procedures. That part was very sad. Not having your partner with you at a time like that can break your strength, so I had to find strength where there was none for the whole procedure.
First they sat me down to get the epidural, it felt so weird to sit down after so many days lying down with my legs up. To be honest I hardly felt anything, the contractions hurt more than the needle itself, so don't worry it wasn't that bad. The good thing is that I knew the anesthesiologist from another procedure I had at the beginning of my pregnancy when there were triplets (my pregnancy started with triplets) and then there were only the twins, so seeing a familiar face helped me feel calmer.
Once the epidural took effect, I asked the doctors that once the babies came out, they should tell me that they were alive and “breathing,” and put me to sleep so that everything could be over. I had gone through enough emotions and I knew that the medical team, my husband, and my family were going to take care of them. At that moment, I gave myself priority so that when I woke up from the anesthesia, I would feel better and calmer.
I remember waking up in recovery and being told that the babies were stable and that I could see them the next day at the visiting hour, which was at 10am. I will never forget that important appointment. For many mothers it is automatically when they are born, but for me it was with an exact date and time, from then on my schedule changed forever.
As for me, that day after they were born I didn't feel any pain and I was quite tired, then there was the discomfort of the surgery and having to walk to see them, plus the catheter which hurt a lot, apart from that I didn't even think about the rest, it was like going on autopilot.
Camila was born at 4:43pm and Gael at 4:44pm, just one minute apart. I’m still amazed at how quickly they were taken out, intubated, and put in their incubators with their nurses in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). My husband was the one who had to see the babies that same day. He had to do it alone and all he could do was hold Gael’s fragile little finger. We treasure this image very much, since they were their first photos together. They showed me those same photos on the night they were born so I could prepare.
It was impressive to see them with such sensitive and thin skin, almost red in color, full of plastic, glasses to protect their eyes from phototherapy and of course not being able to hug them. I will never forget that first moment when I saw how fragile they were and that now it was their turn to fight to survive. The first one I was able to touch was Camila and from there the impact of seeing your baby dressed and feeling that your baby has clothes of its size, I feel that this would have made the difference in terms of seeing her dressed like a newborn, even if she had been born extremely premature, but at the same time they cannot be put so many clothes since their condition was delicate and at that moment the priority is only the hat to be able to see the general physical condition to assess them.
As the weeks go by, they are allowed to be dressed. It is sometimes a slow process but necessary so that they can stay warm and not lose the weight that they have worked so hard to gain.
The first thing I noticed was that neither of them had anything visible on their chests, only their ribs were visible, and their thighs were very thin. They were both “long” for having been born at 26 weeks, which was good. They both weighed approximately 2 pounds at birth and during their stay in the hospital they lost weight. And as a curious fact, a full-term newborn baby weighs around 6-8 pounds.
Throughout their stay at El Dr. Rodolfo Iturralde was the first to receive us that day, both babies had to have neonatologist pediatricians 24 hours a day, so there were at least 3 doctors who attended to them daily plus Dr. Carlos Vega who was the main pediatrician, he had so much affection and love for his profession that we even opened a WhatsApp group with him to be well informed about the status of the babies. To this day, that group of the 3 of us still maintains it, it's incredible how much he loves my children.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the other pediatricians who also treated them with all the love in the world and great willingness: Dr. Lourdes Vaughan, Dr. Enrique Ruidiaz, Dr. Yamilette Rivera, the cardiologists, ophthalmologists, x-ray team, nurses, laboratory, blood bank and all the staff who treated them without schedules and with the best willingness. And of course, to our family and friends, who apart from their support helped us by donating blood and platelets for the children, since both had to receive blood and platelets, they do not know the power of saving lives when they donate blood.
In the next one I will be telling you about the details of the day to day in intensive care, going to visit them every day, breast milk and if you want to discuss any special topic, write me below and we will take it into account. These topics are often asked by the mothers who write to us and we love to tell them about our experience, so that it is useful to them and they can put into practice what works for them, since each family decides what to do and what not to do.