Comment by OB-GYN To Be on 29 Sep 2009 at 7:22 am

Hi Karen,

In the book you write about the experience of all going wrong during the c-section of your second child. What was your experience during the c-section of your first child? Why didn’t the alters surface at that time? What was the difference between both pregnancies and following sections? The way I see it both should of been something of a post traumatic syndrome leading your alters to regroup.

I am a med student, Obstetrics. I would like to understand how your pre-delivery experience caused such upset post delivery. Something went wrong, this I know but your story fascinates me into looking deeper into how the mind deciphers med team help and surgical procedures.

OB-GYN to-be

Philadelphia, PA

Dear OB-GYN, to-be,

Multiplicity is unpredictable. During my first pregnancy and delivery there was no trauma that re-activated my alters to come out to rescue me.  During my hospital stay after my first child’s birth, all was calm. The hospital was private; I had my own room and there were no students, interns, or residents coming in every five minutes. A few days later I was home and feeling great.

My daughter’s birth was chaos from the start. Different doctor and hospital. The night before my daughter’s birth I went to my appointment and told my doctor I was in labor. He didn’t believe me. He said he was going out of town and would see me next week. It was three and a half weeks before my due date and he wasn’t concerned; he assumed my pain was false labor.

By the next morning, I was definitely in labor.  I called my doctors office and was told to call back in two hours. I already knew I’d need a C-section, but I waited anyway. An hour later the office called me and said to go immediately to the emergency room. Once there I was whisked away to labor and delivery. Many doctors swarmed me; it was a teaching hospital. I believe that started my trauma. Four different doctors examined me, talked over me, and my doctor was nowhere in sight. The doctors, nurses, and others were all rushing around me, poking and prodding. I felt afraid, threatened, and abused.

The hospital was undergoing remodeling, there was construction in labor and delivery, and clear plastic heavy-gauge tarps adorned the halls and walls. It looked like a warehouse to me, like the one I was abused in, and that was another trigger. My paperwork never arrived at the hospital, no one new my history, and I never met the female doctor about to C-section me who was screaming orders to her residents. There was no sense of the calm I needed for a woman in distress and labor. I remember thinking I was in a nightmare and I thought I was about to die.

Once wheeled into the operating room, something started happening to me before I was given anesthesia. I started to not feel like myself. I now know that I switched. All of a sudden one leg was strapped down, then the other, my heart raced and before I was unconscious I felt the doctor make the first incision. I was still awake, the spinal had not taken, and the pain was torturous. I moved my leg. I guess if a person is given a spinal that should’ve been impossible. The doctor started screaming again. That’s when I went away. An alter took over at that moment, while all hell broke loose in the operating room. A mask was strapped on my face and I disappeared.

My alters lived for me for quite awhile before I sought help.  Maybe something in what I have shared will help you understand how important it is to keep the atmosphere pleasant and calm during delivery.  A multiple will switch whenever threatened. Too many people reaching and touching can also trigger alters to come forth.

Thank you for your interest in caring about how my mind, as a multiple, changed between two very different pregnancies and deliveries. I believe being strapped down before being anesthetized triggered my alter chaos. As a child I was strapped down more than a few times and my mind may have felt that abuse was at hand.

Good luck with your studies!

Karen