Second Chance: A Mother's Quest for a Natural Birth after a Cesarean

by Thais Nye Derich

Overview

On the joyful day of her son’s birth, Thais Derich never questioned going to the hospital. A week later, she walked out physically, spiritually, and emotionally injured, and fully disabused of the idea that the medical field would ever put her best interests before protocol, money, and legal concerns. The next three years of her life were spent recovering from that day, and preparing herself to do things her way when she became pregnant again. And then she did get pregnant again—and that resolve was put to the test. A universal story about betrayal and trust and the roller coaster ride in between, Second Chance illuminates the many ways in which our healthcare system is broken when it comes to helping women give birth, and gives a voice to all the mothers who have walked away from their delivery experiences wondering what the hell just happened.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631522185
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	05/09/2017
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Thais Derich was born in Carmel, CA. She is a graduate of California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, and lived for two years in Belgium and France studying French before returning to live in California. After starting her own software training business and traveling the US teaching software at Fortune-500 companies, she and her husband decided to start a family, and she left the business to stay home full-time. While at home, she started a successful food blog, sold her healthy granola bars at Rainbow Grocery, and wrote Second Chance. Derich is published at Salon, BlogHer, BabyCenter, Literary Mama, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Forge Journal, SFGate, and the San Francisco Examiner. A chapter of Second Chance was a finalist out of 500 entries for the Creative Non-Fiction Magazine’s baby anthology. She now lives in beautiful Marin County, where she is writing her second book and working at a lovely women’s coworking space called The Hivery.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

Foreword xiii

Introduction xv

Part I A Weave Between Two Births: Luke and Mikko

1 Mikko: Second Birth 1

2 Luke: First Birth 6

3 Mikko: The Business of Being Born 8

4 Luke: Control 12

5 Mikko: Psychologist 18

6 Luke: Fentanyl 21

7 Mikko: Healing 27

8 Luke: Epidural 33

9 Mikko: Regrets 37

10 Luke: Pitocin 41

11 Mikko: Pregnant 47

12 Luke: Cesarean 50

13 Mikko: Crashing Waves 56

14 Luke: Postpartum 60

15 Mikko: Midwife 64

16 Luke: Sorry 67

17 Mikko: Placenta Previa 71

18 Luke: Death 74

19 Mikko: Blessingway 79

20 Luke: Little Girl 83

21 Mikko: Marriage 86

22 Luke: What Babies Want 90

23 Mikko: Reckless 92

Part II Risk versus Reward

24 Masks 99

25 False Labor 101

26 Gone 104

27 Circle 108

28 Substitute Midwife 110

29 Forty-One Weeks 113

30 Hope 118

31 Spectrum 121

32 Transition 127

33 He, Who Is Closest to God 130

34 Celebration 135

35 Not Over 138

36 Hospital 145

37 Home 154

Afterword 160

Note to Readers 163

Acknowledgments 165

Editorial Reviews

2019 Independent Press Awards WINNER in the Women’s Health Category 2019 Body Mind and Spirit Book Awards WINNER in the Healing category 2019 Best Book Awards Finalist in Health (Women's Health) 2019 Readers' Favorite Awards, Honorable Mention in Nonfiction (Health/Medical) 2018 American Book Fest "Best Book" Award FINALIST in Women's Health 2017 Foreword Indies Finalist in Adult Nonfiction—Health “A cautionary, engaging, and informative medical account.” —Kirkus Reviews “Second Chance reaches out to all expectant mothers and empowers them during the birth of their children, enabling them to grow in their spirituality, confidence, and power through birth . . . will make everyone look at the options of what should be done to make childbirth safer and healthier for women.” —Readers' Favorite 5-star review “This book is a beautiful, raw and poignant story of the role of birthing in women’s lives. It takes us on one women’s journey yet it is so real that it is almost impossible to not take it to heart as partly our own." —Erica Weiss,MD, Obstetrician/Gynecologist, San Francisco, California
"So many women today don’t believe that they have choices when it comes to giving birth – but Thais Derich shows us the way in her brave and beautifully written memoir. It is an important and timely story – a memoir full of heartache, resilience, and joy. My hope is that all women considering motherhood will find their way to Thais Derich’s book." —Melissa Cistaro, author of Pieces of My Mother, a NCIBA Best Nonfiction Book of 2015 winner
“I’ve read a lot of book-length birth stories, but Derich’s stands out as especially revealing of the weaknesses in our system.” —Ina May Gaskin, best-selling author and midwife
“An unbiased, highly transparent account of one woman’s journey through the labyrinth of emotions and experiences that can accompany the post-cesarean birthing woman within the U.S.” —Laquitha Glass, Former President of the International Cesarean Awareness Network
“Second Chance is a beautiful telling of a mother’s journey and will be empowering to many women. The ending is so wonderful, I cried.” —Amy Graff, News Producer for SFGATE.com
“A raw and revealing memoir which illuminates the maze of emotions during birth.” —Maria Iorillo, Licensed Midwife (LM), Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), past first Vice President of the Midwives Alliance of North America and the Chairwoman of the California Association of Midwives

From the Publisher

2019-05-23
A woman, convinced by hospital staff and her obstetrician to permit a cesarean delivery for her first baby, commits herself to natural childbirth in this debut memoir.

When Derich and her husband, Jake, went to the hospital in San Francisco, they anticipated a standard birth. They had read the pregnancy books and were prepared for a normal delivery. But the author's labor continued long into the evening, and there were still hours to go. Just after 11:30 that night, her doctor declared: "I think it's time to get this baby out." Translation: We need to perform a cesarean section. Neither Derich nor the baby was in distress, and since she had been given an epidural, the author was not in pain. But the hour was late. "There's an OR open right now,'" the physician urged. If they didn't grab it, she continued, "we'll have to wait." Although the surgery was successful and the baby (Luke) was fine, for Derich the experience was traumatic. She found herself overcome with regret, and she decided if she were to become pregnant again, she would make different choices. Three years later, pregnant with her second son, Mikko, she opted for a home delivery with a midwife in attendance, although first she had to be sure, via a 20-week ultrasound, that the placenta was not "growing over the cesarean scar." That would have required surgical intervention. The author's memoir is an emotional, cathartic review of her struggle with feelings of anger toward the medical team and guilt over her earlier compliance. It is also a useful advocacy guide for women who are considering a home birth, especially those who have had a C-section. The medical profession's rule of thumb is that if a woman has had a C-section, she is at greater risk attempting a vaginal delivery the second time around. According to Derich, the statistics don't really support this assumption. And she notes that in the United States, the "national cesarean rate was 32.2 percent" in 2014, many of which were not emergency procedures. The skillful prose is direct, quite graphic, unsettling, and not for the squeamish.

A cautionary, engaging, and informative medical account.

Kirkus Reviews