Going into an emergency caesarean section is not the ideal plan for a pregnant woman, but let's say that when you face these tests in life, you have to face it in the best possible way and trust the people who are with you.
If you have not read the first part, I suggest you do so before continuing, you can do so by clicking here .
I begin by telling you that once my gynecologist confirmed that I was going to have to have an emergency caesarean section. At that moment, so many questions crossed my mind: Will they be able to survive? Will it have sequelae due to being born prematurely? Could I have I've done something else to make them hold inside me longer? How am I going to breastfeed them so small?... and so many other questions that I can now answer myself and hopefully help other moms who are going through the same thing.
When I started the paperwork for the cesarean section, they asked me if I had the pediatricians chosen, since in the case of Panama, you must have one pediatrician per baby, in our case we needed two for the cesarean section, and later in normal consultations one is enough. And well, I'll tell you that at that moment I had no options, because I was 3 months away, so it was not on my list of priorities as a new mother, now I consider that it is something that we should look for from the beginning to visit the doctors and be sure who will be the doctor who accompanies you in the life of your baby from birth.
Luckily my gynecologist's brother is a pediatrician and he was on duty at the hospital so he was one of the doctors, his name is Dr. Carlos Vega and she was also attended by Dr. Jesualda Sánchez, both are Pediatric Neonatologists. Life will never reach me to thank you for what you did for my children. In the end, Dr. Vega was our primary pediatrician and we continue with him until now.
On the subject of pediatricians, to all mothers who are reading and are pregnant, make appointments with pediatricians as soon as possible to meet them and choose them in time. It is something that it is better to have ready for any unforeseen event or consultation, especially to know if that doctor is really aligned with your goals on the day of delivery. Another day we make a special post on how to choose the pediatrician, it seems very important to me.
Continuing the story, I tell you that when the time came, they took me through the corridors of the hospital with contractions, hunger, fear, pain and with two babies wanting to leave long before their time. Can you imagine the movie scene?
In less than two hours the 4 doctors were ready (main gynecologist, assistant gynecologist and the 2 pediatricians), many nurses and I was lucky that my godfather who is an obstetrician gynecologist could be with me all the time. My husband could not be inside due to the delicacy of the operation and the serious condition of the babies when they were taken out since they would have to do several procedures, that part was very sad, not having your partner at a time like this can break your strength , so I had to get strength from where there wasn't for the whole procedure.
First they sat me down to get the epidural, it felt so strange to sit down after so many days lying with my legs up. The truth is that 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 did know the anesthesiologist from another procedure that I had at the beginning of my pregnancy when they were triplets (my pregnancy started with triplets) and then only the melos were left, so seeing a familiar face helped to be calmer.
Once the epidural took effect I asked the doctors once the babies came out to tell me they were alive and "breathing" to put me to sleep so I could finish everything, enough emotions had passed and I knew the medical team, my husband and my family they were going to take care of them, at that moment I gave myself priority so that when she woke up from the anesthesia I would feel better and calmer.
I remember that I woke up in recovery and they told me that the babies were stable and that I could see them the next day at the time of the visit, which was at 10am. I will never forget that important appointment. That of many moms is automatically when they are born, but for me it was with the exact date and time, from then on my schedule changed forever.
As for me, that day after they were born I did not feel pain and I was quite tired, and then it was the inconvenience of the surgery and having to walk to see them, plus the probe that hurt me a lot, apart from what Others didn't even think anymore, it was like going on autopilot.
Camila was born at 4:43pm and Gael at 4:44pm, just a minute apart, it still amazes me how quickly they were brought out, intubated and put in their incubators with their nurses in the NICU ). My husband, Giovanni, was the one who had to see the babies that same day, he had to do it alone and the only thing he could do was grab Gael's fragile hand, an image that we treasure very much, since they were their first photos together, They showed me those same photos on the night they were born to prepare me.
It was impressive to see them with skin so sensitive and thin, like red, 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 time 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 her size, I feel that this would have made the difference in terms of seeing her dressed as a newborn, even if I had born extremely premature, but at the same time they cannot be fitted with so many clothes since their condition was delicate and at that moment the priority is only the hat to be able to see their physical condition in general to assess them.
As the weeks go by, they are allowed to dress them, it is a process that is sometimes slow but necessary so that they can keep warm and do not lose the weight that is so hard for them to gain.
The first thing I noticed is that neither of them could see anything on their chests, only their ribs were visible and their thighs were so thin, both were "long" for being born at 26 weeks, which was good. They both weighed approximately 2 pounds at birth and have lost weight during their hospital stay. And as a curious fact, a full-term newborn baby weighs around 6-8 pounds.
Throughout their stay at 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 them daily plus Dr. Carlos Vega, who was the main pediatrician, had so much affection and love for his profession that we even opened a WhatsApp group with him to be well aware of the status of the babies that until today that group of 3 of us still maintain, it is incredible how he wants so much to my children.
I take this opportunity to thank the other pediatricians who also treated them with all the love in the world and a lot of 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 attended them without schedules and with the best disposition. And of course, to our family and friends, who, apart from their support, helped us by donating blood and platelets for the children, since they both had to receive blood and platelets, do not know the power to save lives when they donate blood.
In the next one I will be telling you the details of the day to day in intensive care, going to visit them every day, breast milk and if you want any special topic, write me below and we will take it into account. These issues are asked a lot by the mommies who write to us and we love to tell them about our experience, so that it may be of some use to them and that they put into practice what works for them, since each family decides what to do and what not.