A natural birth gone wrong, an emergency C-section, a shockingly fast delivery. I was pregnant.Īll mothers have a pregnancy and birth story. “Sometimes people go to hospitals because they’re very, very sick,” she replied, wrinkling her little brow as she sat in the bed with me, eating orange Jell-O from a plastic cup.īut I wasn’t very, very sick. 'Mama’s in the hospital because the baby is coming,” I told my 3-year-old when she came to visit. I was receiving long-term disability benefits but wasn’t ill. I snuck back into my room and buried myself in my hospital bed, pulling the thin blanket and starched sheets over my head. She told me how lucky I was that I didn’t have to work anymore-commuting to and from work was killing her back. We ordered veggie sushi (no raw fish for us!) and discussed how dimly lit the cafeteria was for such a nice hospital. I didn’t recognize her at first at that point I’d been on bed rest for weeks. I made it all the way to the cafeteria, where I ran into a pregnant woman I knew. I could barely remember the last time I’d walked that much. I peeked out of my lockless door, checked for wandering nurses, and shuffled into the elevator. I’d become desperate to escape, even if it was only to the hospital’s sterile corridors. For weeks, I’d seen only the inside of my room, a beige cell with a view of the parking lot through a small window.

I was in the middle of my third- and longest-hospital stay.

One quiet Sunday afternoon, shortly before the birth of my second child, I decided it was time to make my great escape.

Modified bed rest