Extremely disturbing video

[owly]

disturbing child birth extremely deformed

http://youtu.be/LZZfKHzxb7Q

There something sick about the way the doctors probe him

[Lady Maven]

My brother was born like that... it is called anencephallic. He died just before birth, but I had a friend whose anencephallic baby was born and lived three months in the hospital.

As cruel as it looks, babies born that way know no pain, they are deaf and blind, and only cry and suckle from instinct. The only part of their brain that fully develops is what is known as the lizard brain. ZThey would never be "people" as we understand that term even if they did live for any length of time (I think the oldest on record was like 5)

My sister was pregnant with an anencephallic baby (it is said not to be hereditary so it would seem only an unhappyb coincidence) and terminated the pregnancy. I am normally not a fan of pregnancy termination, but in her case I fully supported the idea.

[bigSparky]

Early in my mother's nursing career she worked at a state hospital in Washington state. When she talked about it years later you could see the heartbreak in her eyes, hear it in her voice. Her time at the VA hospital was also rough on her. Would have been nice if she'd shown just a bit of that compassion for her own kids though. But maybe if she had then there would not have been enough for those that truly needed it.

I didn't watch the video, I can't stand to see children suffering. But if you think a video of it now is bad, imagine the early sixties when she was doing it.

[owly]

Moving post big I feel bad that I posted this video, I'm going to Leave it up. The way the doctors treat the baby sickens me......

[Nether]

what the fuck.....

[Lady Maven]

I don't know Owly... frankly, I think if you saw the way MOST babies are handled right after birth it would freak you out. Yanked from a comfortable womb, tossed casually on a mother's tummy, and then stuck with needles, goop rubbed in their eyes, it is gruesome under the BEST of circumstances!! Don't feel badly about posting it.

Sparky she may have simply learned to close off that part of her. Post straumatic stress disorder is not just about our service men and women and in her day they did not even diagnose it much less treat it. How awful for her to have gone so long with an untreated illness. And how awful for you to have witnessed it. I am so sorry for the both of you.

But in any event peeps, take heart in the fact that the baby in no way suffered at any point. In fact will never know suffering. They were viewing him and perhaps doing so in a less than compassionate way, but it was careless to OUR feelings more than to the child's.

[owly]

I don't think I could handle child birth

[asoc]

I don't think I could handle child birth

You've been through it once Owly.

[bigSparky]

Maven, I would love to be able to think that was the case, but I knew my mom, and her whole side of the family. They are all very cold and distant. She was second oldest of 9( I think there were 3 or 4 that did not survive ) kids, raised on the farm. Both parents came from Germany, grampa in like 1899, and grandma around 1917 or 1918. It was basically an arranged marriage, without love. Grandma finally split when the youngest was 17, in the mid 50's, though they never actually divorced until the early 80's. The kids were merely chattel, labor for the farm. She didn't have a whole lot to draw from. Never wanted to get married, much less have children, but in the 50's that was what you did.

Don't get me wrong. I loved my mother, and I'm pretty sure she loved my brothers and I. She did her residency? to become an RN at the VA and state hospitals. So extremely early in her career she was thrown into probably some of the worst working conditions for that profession, at least at the time. Everything was still so crude then. I was in the hospital in 61 or 62 for pneumonia. I remember vividly being strapped to the bed(so I wouldn't pull my IVs out to go play,lol), and the straps were clear plastic with STRAW for strength. From there she went to the ER, ICU, and then years in Peds, serving as head nurse in all three. She set up the pediatrics unit at Antelope Valley Community Hospital in Lancaster. Prior to that folks had to go to either LA or Bakersfield or San Bernardino from the 2k square miles or so that is the Antelope Valley. That's from Ridgecrest to Victorville, to Mojave, Rosamond, Lancaster/Palmdale, Acton. She ran that for like ten years. After she finally got tired of hospital politics, she joined the VNA and did hospice for the last 15 years of her career. It takes a very special person to do hospice well, and her patients families loved her so much.

I just feel that considering the time and circumstances of her upbringing, the cheating POS that is my biological father, she had a limited pool of compassion/love to distribute. I'm actually happy and proud that she was able to give to some who most likely needed it far more than I. But I can't deny a longing that still exists after almost ten years since her passing.

When I was around 7 or 8, we happened to be near the state hospital for some reason, and she took us on the grounds. It was quite beautiful, stunningly so. Then she told us a bit about what she actually did there. I don't remember much of that conversation, but a couple of things stand out. The death of children and that most of them had been pretty much abandoned by their parents, of course, but most of all her description of draining the fluid from the heads of the anencephallic babies, and the futility of it. She was a big proponent of euthanasia and assisted suicide, and that was the first time I remember her speaking of it. I had a tough time wrapping my head around the concepts at that age. I get it now.

[Lady Maven]

The sins of the father isn't just some random comment, eh? It sucks how shit people did who lived well before our time screws US up. I once heard that love is not about the way people feel about us but the way they make us feel about ourselves. At least it sounds like you came through with the capacity for compassion. That is a good thing.

When my brother was delivered they were not allowing anencyphalic babies organs to be used so there was not even another saved life to point to and say at least SOMETHING good came of it.

[bigSparky]

We had a stillborn brother as well, between Tolvaj and I. As I recall it was the same thing, but Mom never really talked about it with us after I was old enough to remember. It's funny the things you do remember well though. She was always amazed at the detail I remembered about that hospital. Three story red brick building, ceilings about 12 foot with windows nearly floor to ceiling, sea foam green walls, the bright white curtains billowing in the breeze from the windows being open to help keep me cool from the fever. The front of it looking more like a small two story school than a hospital, the US and Washington State flags on the flag pole. But most of all those straps. That got her the most. For me it is like looking at pictures in my mind it is that clear.

[owly]

I heard from a friend that I had take a look into the video that the baby died a half hour latter