Now say. Georgia Romero. OK. So can you tell me just so briefly, your
history, you grew up here, you know, when were you born? OK, I was born
August 25th, 1950, and it was a home birth because that's when we had the.
What do you call those ladies?
Midwife. Yeah, so me and my two younger brothers were born here. Um So.
So do you know who the midwives were? Were they part of your family or
one of the ladies, older ladies that lived, I can't remember her name. Um
, was there much was there knowledge passed down from generation to
generation about the expectations of birth or practices around birth?
Not that I can
I don't remember.
Um, you know, we just interviewed a woman and she said that the midwife,
um, Is it OK? OK, so that the, um, that the midwife met her at her home
after she had given birth and um was part of the naming of the child and
brought the child out to greet the son. Is that anything that has to do
with your culture? Probably, but I don't remember any of that. And my mom
never talked about that stuff, so I don't really know. Um, so when you,
when you got pregnant with your first child, did you have an understanding
of what to expect, or was it, did no one talk to you about that? I knew, I
knew um about childbirth and. And my kids were born in the hospital in
Albuquerque, so. Was that a planned pregnancy?
Not really, both of my uh. Pregnancies weren't planned. Were you, um, how
was the pregnancy? Were you, did you enjoy it or was it, um, yeah, it's
exciting because um.
OK. I was Single mother.
Yeah, that's I first had my first child, yeah. Did you have family support
? Yes, I did. Yeah, my mom and my mom was the person that was supportive.
Um, so did you have any ultrasounds or contact with doctors while you were
pregnant? The first one, no, um. Um, I didn't really. I was used to miss
my periods, so I didn't know I was pregnant until probably the last. be
It's been too far, too long ago, but.
That was in 72 when I had him, so. I never really went to um. The doctor
about my uh. My pregnancy until maybe the last uh. Mo
When I, when my son was due, and that was in Albuquerque when I went, so,
and I had uh preeclampsia, preeclampsia.
Oh wow, yeah, so I had to stay in the hospital for a while until I had him
and he was premature.
Wow. Was your mother there with you in the hospital? No, I, I, I was there
by myself because she was, I think she was working at that time, so she
couldn't be, be with me. That's scary. Yeah. Did you have your siblings?
Any other family? No, my brothers were a little bit younger than me.
Yeah, even my, my younger brother wasn't born there, you know, he was.
Yeah, he was only about 4 years old when I had to. Um, so how long were
you in the hospital? Were you induced?
Trying to remember
Because he was one of the doctors uh at the. What was his name? I can't
remember his name. He was the.
Hm.
I know I was still working when I went to see the doctor, and that's when
he told me I had preeclampsia. So we decided it was best that I go to the
emergency room that uh used to be. ECMC, now it's UNMH. So
Admitted me and I stayed there. Until I had
My son Did they give you medication? Yeah, for the preeclampsia.
And my son was born um. Uh, February 18th and he only weighed 4 pounds 3
ounces, so he had to be in the hospital for about a month until he weighed
uh 5 pounds. Were you, did you, um, you didn't stay in the hospital for a
month, I stayed next door at, um. Public health hospital. In Albuquerque.
I I think I stayed for a week and then they let me go, but then my son
stayed. Intensive care until he weighed 5 pounds, that's when I could
bring him home. So, um, what was that experience when you, did you have a
vaginal delivery? No. C-section. Wow, that's really intense for your first
birth, all by yourself.
So did they, did the doctors tell you this is the process, this is what
you can expect?
So we've interviewed a few women who've had C-sections and they'll talk
about a sheet or something dividing
a sheet over.
They're doing something down there and I could feel them.
Pushing, pulling him out.
Did you have any um reaction to the medications and people talk about
shivering? No, but they gave me one of those final things and and they
told me that down the road it would. Um,
One of the complications would be your back hurting, lower back hurting,
and. Did you experience that? Yeah, I I I've experienced it sometimes when
I'm uh. Lifted something and my back starts to hurt and I think that's one
of the reasons. Is that a spinal It must have been hard for you
emotionally to leave your newborn. Yeah, I, I know it was hard. And I
visited him every day till he. Weigh 5 pounds. Were you nursing him at
that point? No, I couldn't nurse him because I wasn't producing any milk.
Well, especially if he was pre-term, you know, your body isn't prepared.
Um, so did you find that the hospital staff and everything was, you know,
um, they made you as comfortable as possible? Yeah. Um, so when, when I'm
assuming they, during the C-section at some point they pull out the baby
and they said it's a boy, or did you know? Uh, no, I didn't know. So how
did you feel about that? Were you happy.
Did you have already an idea for names for boys or girls? No, I'm not at
that time, I didn't.
So what happened? How did you come up with one? Well, his dad, his dad's
name was uh I gave him his dad's first name and then I added a middle name.
So did he grew up healthy and fine? Yeah. Yeah, he's healthy. He's married
now. And that's family. So what about the second pregnancy pregnancy was
um. Um,
The same. I came down with preeclampsia and had to have a C-section, and
this time she waited 4411
I got a chance to bring her home. You though she wasn't 5 pounds. Wow,
that's incredible that that that was the same for both pregnancies, and
there was a 3rd, just,
just the 2.
Um, so were you prepared more for that second one? Yeah, if you saw my
daughter today, you know she was a preemie.
I Are we OK? OK, is your um. Did you have either of your children have
given birth? Obviously you have grandchildren and my daughter. So were you
there for the birth? Yeah, I was for all three of them. Yeah. What was
that experience like for you? was it exciting.
Did you um? Did you feel that you were uh helpful to them in the process.
I'm sure it was comforting just having you there, yeah. Were their births
different than yours, um. Trying to think.
If they were all vaginal or C-section.
Can't remember. I think the. First one was C-section.
Because he had his umbilical cord tied around his neck, so I think they
had to do an emergency C-section.
And I think these were, I can't remember the, the 2nd or 3rd, I don't know
if they're. Vaginal or C-section. I can't remember. So you grew up in this
area. Where was your mother's home? Was it nearby? Uh, this is our family
home and we all lived here and then right now she lives in the village. Oh
, so she's still alive. Oh, that's excellent. Did she give birth at home?
All of our births were at home. Do you think I could talk to her? Um,
probably not. She's hard of hearing. She has hearing loss, so she won't.
Even hear you. It's he has dementia too, so yeah, it can be challenging.
Those stories are so incredible, you know, it's good to be able to
capture them, um. So when do you think that it changed from home births to
the hospital births? Um, when the midwives were no longer here, because I
don't think there's any midwives now. Why do you think that is? I guess
nobody's interested. I don't know.
It'd be interesting if there could be more of like a hybrid of, you know,
those ways of and then like modern technology with, you know, because
midwives seem like a wonderful addition to the practice of birth, you know.
Do you have any questions, Ashley? Um, I, you may have already mentioned
this, but did your mom ever talk to you guys about the experience of home
birth? I mean, you knew that you were born at home. Did she talk about
that at all?
No, not really. We never talked about that kind of stuff. So this is your
family home. Mhm. fix that. So there were babies born in this house. No,
my grandmother. Yeah, my brother was born here. Both of my brothers,
younger brothers. And I was born at my grandparents. House that seems
really special to me, you know, not having to go like, oh, I was born at
that hospital, but to know you were born in these walls and yeah.
Um, all right, is there anything else you want to contribute or you can
think of?
I can't think of anything right now. Well thank you so much. I really
appreciate this. Anything else before we go? I don't wanna. Be kicking
myself cause I didn't ask you something, so when I think about it for a
second.
Oh, I was wondering because you said for a very long time you didn't
realize you were pregnant. How did you know? How did you first?
I can't remember. It's been so long. Mm.
Cuz I worked at the time and.
I think I felt probably felt something moving there, down there in my
stomach, so that's when I realized that something was going on.
Did you have morning sickness? I don't remember. I don't think so.
And I didn't have any cravings, so.
Interesting. OK, I think we're good. All right, so let me just ask you one
more question, and sometimes we'll ask this question because we're
separating the stories and thematically. Is there any word or phrasing of
words that summarizes your experience of birth?
Well, it was exciting and scary at the same time.
Because uh with the C-section, you never know what's gonna happen.
Yeah, it's a lot of different emotions. Yeah, OK, great, so I'm gonna hit.