A Personal Birthing Experience
The night my first child was born was pretty uneventful until 12:00 am when my water broke.  We drove to the hospital, about 2 hours away, and I was admitted.  The nurses put a fetal heart monitor on me right away.  My contractions lasted until 9:00 the next morning when my doctor said I was ready to push.  I had to walk to the next room where I was put in a birthing chair.  I was reclined back and began to push.  My daughter was born at 9:33.  She was wrapped and put in an incubator to warm while they stitched my episiotomy. It took them over an hour because I had torn internally as well as externally.  I had lost a lot of blood during delivery and was getting very light headed.  I almost passed out during the stitching process.  I was able to hold my daughter after I became steady.  I was sent home in an anemic state with iron pills to build back my blood.  I refused a blood transfusion because my hospitalization occurred when some of the blood supply in the U.S. had been found to have been affected by AIDS.  It took quite a long time to feel energetic enough to resume a normal life style again but I felt it was the safer choice. 
I chose this example because it was my first pregnancy.  The first pregnancy experience is so unique and foreign.  I wasn’t able to understand what other mothers I knew were talking about until I experienced the same thing.  I did all I could to be active and healthy during my pregnancy and after.  I required a lot of rest after getting home but it didn’t affect the care I gave my daughter.    
The variables surrounding a birth are numerous but I think that modern health care can anticipate many of them.  I was fortunate that I was healthy and active during my pregnancies and didn't have any problems during or after the deliveries but I know not everyone's experiences are like that.  If a couple is not healthy both before they conceive and after, the baby can suffer in the way it develops.  Complications during the delivery can also be a source of problems and stress for the family and birth.  Adults have a lot of control over the type of pregnancy they will have.  Prenatal education is very important as is prenatal care.  A normal, healthy birthing experience will enable a normal healthy child to develop.   
I read about childbirth in Italy.  Most births occur in a hospital but unlike here, 2-3 beds are in a room instead of each mother having a private room.  An average stay in the hospital is 3 days.  In Italy, you can deliver in a private clinic but you have to pay for it and those institutions aren’t always prepared with the proper equipment for an emergency.  Otherwise, your care and medical supplies are provided free if you pay into social security under their universal health care system. Mothers have to provide clothing, bedding and supplies for the baby.  Italy has family planning centers that provide services for all stages of pregnancy.  The services are free, also.  According to a woman’s blog who has delivered more than one child in Italy, fathers are not allowed to attend the births, until the very end, and are not allowed to care for the new mother; only other females are.  She also said that epidurals are not given and comforts such as CD’s, candles or being able to get up to use the restroom are not allowed.  Another American woman’s blog who lives in Italy said that doctors and midwives work together to deliver the baby, fetal heart monitoring isn’t used often, women have to lie flat during delivery, episiotomies are usually routine, and having the baby room with the mother is uncommon. 
Differences between my experience and an experience in Italy include the ability of the father to attend the birth and care for the mother, the set-up of the hospital rooms, the cost of the birthing services, the comforts brought from home, the use of fetal heart monitoring, the use of midwives, providing supplies for the baby, and rooming with the baby.  Similarities include the amount of time in the hospital, the use of episiotomies, and being mostly reclined back to deliver. 
I didn’t learn any new information about the affect of childbirth on child development during my research.  It appears that having a child in Italy is as safe as it is in America so if a birth is uneventful in Italy, as it is in the U.S., a child’s development should be normal.

References

Fassio, C.  (2012).  Childbirth.  [Blog message].  Retrieved from http://www.expatsinitaly.com/node/96

Maria.  (2011).   Giving birth in Italy.  [Blog message].  Retrieved from http://bellinisbeerbabybottles.blogspot.com/search/label/Having%20Babies