I gave birth in silence–not my own, I moaned and grunted and mooed my way through the contractions.. But the world was silent to me. There were no beeping machines, the people that rushed about were quiet, and the only sounds I heard were the ones vibrating in my chest, and the words that my husband would communicate to me- first softly touching my arm to get my attention, then allowing me to read them off of his lips as he would ask me a question or communicate some filtered piece of information to me. There was no excess sound. There was no discussion or argument or things overheard. I trusted him to make my arguments for me, and so all I had to do was utter short sentences to make my wishes known.
One of the things that is supposed to be the most difficult about a hospital labor is that there is no shortage of sounds to distract you. People rush in and out of your room, people ask questions and shout orders, and babble on in long rationalizations of the procedures they wish to do- when you’ve let them know you have no desire for the procedure. People interrupt you constantly with a barrage of useless noise.
I had none of that. I birthed in a silent bubble, my hearing aids tucked away in my purse not to be pulled out until my new son and I were safely alone in our hospital room for the night.
And I would have it no other way. The peaceful quality of silence makes it so much easier to focus on keeping the pain at bay. It was one of those times where I was deeply happy that the sounds of my world could be so simply switched off, and that silence was an option.
January 6th, 2007 at 2:55 am
That is very cool. I am so happy that you were able to have your silence and have L to deal with all the hearing and noise and stuff that you /didn’t/ need to deal with at the time.
I find that I often need my silence. Not just for pain management, but for day to day shutting my brain down from processing which it is good at - too good at. Like L my partner is happy to sign at me (I am too poo at lipreading to use it alone) most of the time which works nicely.
I am sure my ability to focus on things that I need to is increased by turning off the sounds around me - if I can avoid vibrations too even better (uni library felt like earthquakes so I couldn’t work in there). I turn off my aids in my numpty computer classes, and the tutor has got very good at waving at me, or tapping me on the arm to get my attention if she needs it, otherwise everyone leaves me alone.
Can I ask how you are coping with your baby as an HOH mum. It is one of those things that intrigues me. How do you find hearing and watching your baby with and without your hearing aids? - If that isn’t a too personal question for me to ask.
January 7th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
id like to ask that too sara, because i cant wait to get pregnant with Keith down the line but i do worry incase i cant hear my baby at night! but im delighted everything went well and I hope my experience down the line is as nice as yours was
congrats girlie 
and give the tiny tot lots of hugglies for us 
and congrats to L also 
top man 
January 17th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Congrats Sara on your New addition.
Lette and Barakta
I hope you won’t mind me telling you how I coped. At night I was lucky as without my aids I couldn’t hear anything, fortunately for me hubby comes to bed really late so he would feed them (babies) as they were bottle fed. He would also get up if they cried during the night as I wouldn’t hear them. LOL the advantages of being deaf.
During the day I would have there prams next to me so I could hear them. I also noticed that as a mother you develop a sixth sense. I could feel when they were awake. It may sound corny but they both seemed to know I was deaf/ profound hard of hearing and would really make a big noise so I would here them.
As they got older I just made sure I could see what they were up to. They have grown up with my being deaf and have naturally understood what is needed so that they can communicate with me. Lipreading has been a blessing as both my boys have learnt to speak clearly and they can also lipread to a certain extent.
They have grown up to be loving caring young men of whom I am very proud.
January 18th, 2007 at 9:55 am
awwww thats wonderful
I cant wait to have a small funsized human of my own 
January 18th, 2007 at 9:55 am
awwww thats wonderful
I cant wait to have a small funsized human of my own 
January 18th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
The wee one sleeps in bed with us, so I don’t have to worry about hearing him! I can feel him move against me in the night, and he already seems to know to touch me to get my attention- he’ll often flail his arms/legs around at me before making a peep, and when i look at him he’ll make movements that show what he needs. Feeding is little mouth o’s, holding is reaching out to me and smiling. Gas is squirming and making uncomfy faces. Then he’ll start in with quiet high-pitched sounds. He only cries when he’s seriously disturbed by something, or when he’s being ignored after asking for something in a half dozen other ways.
During the day, he’s usually in a sling with me, so again not a problem. Or if he’s in his bassinet or the bed in another room, I have a Sony monitor that lights up with 6 lights when he cries, and I turn the volume way up, and it’s loud enough that i can hear the little fussing sounds.
January 19th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
thats amazing
Oh it must be such amazing fun and a learning experience to have a tiny thing like that, but It must be terrifying all at the same time!! I cant wait!! I was at my friends hous who has a tiny little boy of about 2 months old, and I had an amazing time, when I smiled I was thrilled because he was happy with me, it felt great but I guess its always easier when you can hand them back!! I really cant wait untill its time for me tho 
January 20th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Thanks both Mela and Sara, it is helpful to hear how people have done the baby thing while unable to hear, as monitors don’t give the full story.
I love talking to old deaf people about when their children were small and what things they made to allow their children to alert them and stuff. Kind of like our house which is rigged with home-brew prototyped hardware for me + extra features.
With small children it takes me a while to get into their zone so I can understand anything other than high pitched squawks. But once I have a grasp of their level I appear to outparse the hearies in the room, as I’m accustomed to pattern matching on people’s speech.