God's New Creation

My Birth Experience

People say, "Only after you have gone through labour will you be a real woman." I beg to differ. We don't have to go through a birth experience to be a real woman. It is too traumatic. Maybe to be more positive, it's something we would remember as a significant event in our lives.

On Saturday morning, I visited the gynae and we decided to induce junior that day since his birth weight is potentially low and it would be better to get him out early and be fed externally. My gynae did a vaginal examination for me and found that my cervix was 1cm dilated and "quite ready" to give birth. She then inserted a pill for the induction. If not show, no water bag burst, no contraction, admit myself to the hospital at 8pm that day.

3.30pm: Beginning of mild contractions every 3 minutes. That shocked me big time. Every 3 minutes? And not that painful contractions. Am I in real labour? Could I be so lucky to be in labour but spared of bad contractions?

4pm: We set off for the hospital. Met with a bad traffic jam. I was beginning to worry. Will I give birth in the car? Ha. Watched too much TV.

5pm: Reached the hospital. One of the security guards offered to get me a wheelchair but I refused. Could still walk quite all right. Waited for a while at the admission counter. Strange that the counter staff asked for payment for the single-bedded room despite a preggie looking quite distraught and worried about giving birth any minute.

5.15pm: Got a maternity ward and left wondering more. Shouldn't they send me to a labour ward instead? To make it worse, we got a double-bedded room which wasn't what we'd asked for.

5.30pm: After Berry checked, we realised the clinic assistant made a mistake and indicated a double-bedded room for us. Also, we clarified that I was having labour contractions and needed to go to the labour ward.

5.35pm: Nothing much we could do except watch TV. On arrival at the labour ward, my gynae let me stayed in the ward to get the contractions working on setting off established labour. It was quite boring. The only 'stinker' was the vaginal examination. The dear nurse was so rough when cleaning and doing the vaginal examination (VE) for me I thought I'd die. My gynae definitely could do it much better in the morning.

11pm: My gynae checked on me and did another VE. By now, I couldn't take the pain. She advised on getting an epidural since I couldn't even take the pain from a VE. Wanted to scream that their nurse hurt me earlier on and I was wounded! Nothing Berry and I could do except watch TV and sleep. Contractions still mild but it was not nice sleeping in the labour ward. I had to be strapped to the bed at least 3 times for an hour each to monitor the contractions and baby's heartbeat.

One of the nurses was really attentive. She helped check baby's position and heartbeat and advised me to sleep on my right instead of left so the foetus wouldn't press on the umbilical cord. Thank God for her.

(Because of the traumatic VE episode at 5.35pm, I opted for epidural. Will not forget this irony. Epidural 'coz of VE pain and not labour pain.)

Sunday, 8am: Anesthetist came to administer epidural. I had to curl up like a panda lying on its side. Was told not to move but that was literally impossible. How to when something is poked right into your spine? Yes, I've always been a negative person. I must say that epidural is the most undignified way of being numbed from pain as far as I know. (Later on, I heard from a friend that the epidural she had was quite well administered and she didn't jerk like I did. Anesthetist is more skilful?)

9am: Gynae came to do another VE. I was 2-3cm dilated. An oxytocin drip was administered to induce established labour. The Group B streptococcus antibiotic drip was also given. My cervix should dilate about 1cm each hour and gynae said she'd be back about 3pm to deliver junior.

Nothing much I could do except be numb and watch TV. I could feel contractions toward the top of the womb but of course I wouldn't know the intensity of it since I was quite numb. However, could still feel the amniotic fluid flowing out. It was a weird sensation indeed. Every other minute, I prayed for the dilation to happen successfully, that junior would have no problem coming out.

12pm: Midwife came in to check on me and was mildly horrified to find I was fully dilated. Hallelujah! God answered my prayer. However, midwife had problem locating my gynae. She fussed around me. Told me not to push yet. Wait for gynae. It was only later when gynae arrived that we realised the nurses were not able to locate her at all. She had a sense to call the hospital and only then found that I had to give birth. Thank God for again answering my prayer to hold junior there till the gynae came.

I didn't have to push too many times. Junior popped through the strong contractions while I was pushing. I must say when you don't feel a thing, it's strange to be told to push. Push like I was shitting, I was told.

It was almost surreal. There he was, wailing for dear life! Thank God he's breathing and very much alive. I was touched, lost for words. To show further that he's a healthy baby, he peed twice - once at the gynae, another at the midwife when she was attending to him.