Problem:
As one who has dreamed and prepared for a home birth since I was a teenager, being told our baby was breech a few weeks before the due date and we needed to prepare for cesarean delivery caused mental, emotional, financial, and physical stress. Home birth for me was the way to avoid stress because of my apprehension towards hospital processes and environment. Birthing at home was where I felt safest and most joyful. At times, the deep grief, disappointment, fears, and pain have even caused me to doubt God. As the story shared about John's public speaking stress, my stress stemmed from apprehensions and fears (Harrington, 2013, p. 2). However, due to the nature of this situation being out of my control, I swung right into fight and engagement coping over flight and avoidance coping. Through talking with friends who have had cesareans, choosing a hospital my friend gave birth at, working with a midwife to bring as much of the home birth experience to the hospital, etc., I addressed this stressful situation (Boyraz et al., 2016). Much to my surprise, the hospital experience turned out not to be as stressful, but the physical and emotional recovery was. Physically and emotionally healing from the surgery was more stressful than initially receiving the disappointing news. The abrupt shift from a planned natural birth to a major surgical recovery induced severe physical stress and vulnerability. Need Assignment Help?