Erzurum Childbirth

I visited my friend Anna today at her in-laws apartment. Basically, for the last two months, she, her husband, and two small children have been staying with ten other people in a two-bedroom apartment. She sent me a message today saying she was going out of her mind and asking me to visit. So, I hopped a bus and actually made it there without getting lost.

Her in-laws, like mine, are incredibly nice. But I can definitely understand how difficult it is to spend your days in close quarters and unable to communicate clearly with anyone. To be honest, I’m about to lose my own mind—and I don’t live with anyone (but my husband). I have no work, everyone I know is on holiday, and I have nowhere to go. I spend practically every minute in my small, small apartment.

I told Anna that I’m a bit worried I’ll go mad after the baby is born. I won’t be working, it will be winter, and the baby and I will be trapped inside this shoebox all day. Anna had two children in Erzurum and assured me I’d survive giving birth here. After I told her about my current anxiety, though, she told me the actual truth about having her babies in Erzurum.

In a nutshell, she had two botched C-sections. After her first C-section, she bled for four months. The doctor said she’d made a mistake sewing her up and would fix it after her next baby. This did not happen. She still has daily pain from her C-section—and her last baby was born two years ago. Not only did they do a terrible job on her C-sections—she was bedridden for weeks—but they miscalculated the conception date of her last baby and delivered her 6 weeks early.

If that wasn’t bad enough . . . they refused to let her husband come into the operating room while she had a C-section, so Anna was there alone and unable to communicate with the doctors who had no English and she had little Turkish. They strapped her to the gurney and tied her hands down during the C-section. I can't even imagine. And then they sent her home after less than 24 hours and only gave her Tylenol for a painkiller afterwards.

So, how am I feeling now about having my baby in Erzurum? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!