A Painfully Frustrating Childbirth

Mrs. Wiwit is a 42 year old gudeg seller. Living in the Caturtunggal region, she gets
up at roughly 4 o’clock in the morning to set up her small stand and begin selling, which she
does every single day, next to the Pandega Mandala Alley, until 8 o’clock in the morning.
She has also married and up to this point, has 3 children. However, her last pregnancy proved
to be very memorable in a bad way, as it proved to be a very traumatic and frustrating one
due to a congenital anomaly found well before that birth itself.
It all happened 4 years ago, in 2015 and while she was 38 years old. The childbirth
was carried out in the Sakinah Idaman Hospital. The child was a boy. Her husband and 2
other children regularly visited her in the days leading up to it. A few days beforehand, the
obstetricians, while performing regular fetal monitoring and assessments, found
abnormalities in the circulation of the baby. Mrs. Wiwit and her family were absolutely
shocked. It wasn’t something they could ever expect, let alone anticipate. This was especially
due to the fact that they all had no idea how this could happen. While Mrs. Wiwit’s husband
did have a smoking habit, this was not deemed substantial enough to result in the baby’s
condition. Their shock was followed with feelings of sadness, worriedness, and frustration.
Mrs. Wiwit was especially hit hard, as she was desperate to ensure the survival of her baby.
The day of the childbirth soon arrived. It happened within the normal gestational age
range (38-42 weeks). The method used was Caesarean section. When the baby was born, he
was boy with appropriate weight for his age, weighing in at 2.8 kg. The obstetrician, along
with a pediatrician, arrived to help assess the newborn baby’s condition and provide adequate
resuscitation procedures. They ensured to survival of the boy but also discovered that his
breathing was much faster and harder than it should be. The case was suspected to be a hole
in the walls separating the chambers of the heart.
The baby was transferred to the JIH (Jogja International Hospital) and further
diagnosis was carried out by a cardiologist. For 5 months, many different tests were carried
out on the baby to properly assess his condition, including a complete blood count. This
period was marked by a constantly increasingly agonizing feeling of desperation as Mrs.
Wiwit and her family constantly waited. They remained hopeful but at the same time, felt
sadness and anxiety at the worst case scenario possible i.e. the loss of the child. Finally, the
cardiologist determined that the condition was indeed a very large hole in the wall in the form
of a ventricular septal defect.
Immediately, the baby was transferred again (it is unknown why these transfers were
frequently performed), this time to the Panti Rapih Hospital. A cardiac surgeon carried out
surgical repair of the ventricular septal defect in order to patch it up. Compared to the
previous ordeals, the entire procedure (including recovery time) lasted only a few days.
However, the feelings of his family weren’t alleviated much, though they greatly improved
and were very grateful to all those involved in saving his life. This was due to the fact that the
baby drastically increased in weight for 2 years. Fortunately, it all ended after that, as the
baby soon experienced normal weight gain. With the disappearance of the all the baby boy’s
health problems, so were most of the negative feelings of Mrs. Wiwit and her family ever
since the start of the crisis.
 In conclusion, the ventricular septal defect case in Mrs. Wiwit’s newborn child is
clearly a seriously problem. It results in faster and harder breathing and, in time, permanent
damage to the lung blood vessels. While still unclear, her husband’s smoking habit may be
involved. While future complications, severities, and problems were avoided thanks to proper
management protocols and procedures carried out with great effect, it was still a near miss for
the whole family. As a result, Mrs. Wiwit felt deeply traumatized by this event and remained
so 4 years later. She obviously felt traumatized after almost losing her third child.
Nevertheless, she has taken steps to alleviate that feeling. Fortunately, she made good
progress, and by the middle of 2019, she has fully recovered from it.