Friday, March 3, 2017

the birth of baby tara: part 2

now before i continue i must give a huge shoutout to my bestie nazya hyder, who i think got a minute by minute update of my entire labour. i sent her a screenshot of my contraction times over a span of a week and she patiently told me every time that it wasn't it until it was and she said once you hit 7 minutes go to the hospital. of course on 'THE' night her phone died and her husband whatsapped me exactly this, 'naz told me to tell you that if it continues for the next 45 mins (contractions?) to head to the hospital.' and true enough it was time...

so i don't know what it's like in a malaysian delivery ward but let me paint the scene of what its like over here. there is an observation room, which is the first place you go to time surges, check how dilated you are and whether you are on your way to have a baby, this is also where most of the time you are sent home (me, twice). since 3rd time was a charm i was admitted to a room that was bloody far from this observation room. same floor but different wing. the good thing was that we had our privacy and i could labour as i chose; in my own clothes in a dimly lit room with russian red in the background. the bad thing was that i had to walk to the observation room every 3 hours, which became increasingly difficult to do with my surges coming every 5 minutes.

when i was admitted i was 1cm dilated and after 3 hours i was at 3cm. we were progressing well but my surges were only 50%, which freaked me the eff out because what the hell was it going to be at 100%...i would soon find out. i stayed at 3cm for awhile but my surges were very intense and during my second trip to the observation room i requested to labour in the private room next door because (1) i couldn't walk anymore (2) there were 6 beds in the observation room and i wanted to cry as loud as i could without anyone judging me (3) i did not want to labour next to another couple that ordered nasi goreng, how in the world a lady could eat nasi goreng in the middle of labour is beyond me.

i must say that listening to the relaxation cd every other night helped me tremendously. my mind was probably the strongest it had ever been and since all my focus was on my breath i hardly noticed the 12 hours go by. i kept my sugar levels up with dates and stayed hydrated with sips of water, which became more and more difficult to do because of the discomfort of a full bladder and peeing during a surge. (nazya also told raymond to force me to keep taking sips of water)

it almost seemed as if i went from 3cm to birth because i can't really remember what happened in between. i remember crying towards the end because of the intense pressure on my perineum and butt area and because of that pressure i had to hold myself off the bed because i just couldn't sit on my bum. why didn't i lie on my side you ask? because every single position hurt like a motha. so towards the very end i thought 'fuck, how much longer is this going to be and if the pain is going to get any worse i may probably die' but now i know that when you feel like that, the baby is ready to come out.

because during my last check 2 hours ago i was only at 3cm the nurse did not expect me to be at 10cm when i was, so when i was bawling my eyes out and moaning and groaning (birthing makes you make the weirdest sounds. i swear i sounded like a donkey) she asked me if i felt like i needed to poop and i said yes. she then proceeded to remove my pants (yes, i wore pants. duh!), turned me onto my side and i could feel a gush of liquid coming out of me, i only knew it was blood because my husband said full of panic, 'is it normal for there to be so much blood?' and then it was the nurse's turn to panic as she immediately ran out of the room to call in more nurses. you'd probably think i freaked out too but i was thrashing like a whale from the pain and before i knew it a senior nurse said, 'it's time to push'.

hypnobirthing tells you to breathe your baby out but if i breathed my baby out i'd probably still be in that labour room with my legs in stirrups. i'm here to tell you that you literally need to poop your baby out. when it was time to push i remember screaming my head off, then on the second time they told me not to shout and to focus all my energy on pushing the baby out. it took me 4 pushes i think but she shot out and was caught by dear dr aswin. and just like that all the pain was gone.

i fell in love with her immediately.

i got my birth.

i must say that i also wanted to experience a natural birth with my husband. it brings your relationship to a whole new level and my husband was the best birthing buddy i could ever wish for. he was calm, he kept reminding me to breathe and when it came to the point where i thought i just couldn't do it anymore he helped me cross the finish line. he was in it with me and i fell in love with him all over again.

i have never felt more powerful.



1 comment:

  1. Excellent job Jan. But yes some women can eat like an elephant while they are in labour. For e.g.: me lol. While my contraction was heavy and I was already 7cm dilated by the time I reach to hospital but had to eat something with rice! I was soooo hungry ( I could eat the whole goat at that moment ). Pain was like an active volcano, but hunger was important so I walked down to cafeteria to eat chicken rendang Since I miss the hospital meal ( thank god ). It was the most tasty chicken rendang I ever had for the first & last time. Than after 2 hours I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl Augie ����. I shocked all the nurses in the hospital. My husband was used to coz it happened with first baby too ( crossiant & tea at Starbucks ) haha.

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