What it means is that the placenta separated from the wall of my uterus before the babies were delivered, and that I lost a great deal of blood very quickly, and that both of those facts had consequences for three people.

I was taken to the operating room and put under general anesthesia — not a spinal, which is what you have for a planned cesarean and which is why people are awake for them, but general, because there was no time — and my sons were delivered at 5:41 and 5:42 in the evening.

I received seven units of packed red cells and four of plasma.

I was in that operating room for two hours and eleven minutes.