Motherhood -Birth Process

23rd April 2015 marked a special day for me. It started right at 12am where my contraction started. I felt a dull pain in my tummy with occasion lower backache. I brushed it off at first as I thought it was a false alarm since the Estimated Due Date was still a few days away. However the pain just haunted me and I decided to time the pain. My Ob told me that if the pain came every 7 minutes, then the baby is ready to come out. I downloaded a contraction app and time my contraction. 3 min, 5 min, 7 min, 3 min , 5 min , 5 min..... and it just go on until I felt very frustrated because it's affecting my sleep. At 3am, I felt a gush of water drip down and I figured it could be a water bag burst. I went to put a pad and try to sleep instead. My contraction still didn't happen at a fix interval and I wasn't bleeding so I don't think it's urgent to call my OB. The contraction just came on and off until 5am I decided to call my OB because the pain was affecting my sleep and I need to work! Anyway I had an appointment with him the next day and I wanted to check if I can go on that day. He was in the midst of sleeping and I recalled he mentioned 'Just go to the hospital', The reason why I did not head to the hospital earlier on is because I heard of cases where mummies went to the hospital with 'false contraction' or it's not fully dilated, only to be send home to wait.

So after receiving the 'green light' to go to the hospital, I went to shower and called my parents to pick me and send me to the hospital. As it was early in the morning at 6.30am, I brought them to the nearby coffeeshop for some breakfast. We finished at 7am and my brother drove me to the hospital.
Hubby went to work and told me he would rush down after his lesson .

When I reached the hospital, I was ushered to the maternity ward where I was examined by the mid wife. They checked my dilation and it was 3cm , well,it's not ready but I don't have to go back because my membrane had broke as well. They informed my OB and he arrived shortly after to examine me. He asked me to wait in the room for the dilation to increase and he would come in the afternoon. The nurse prepared me for the birth by giving me the suppository to clear my bowel and put some monitoring equipment to check on my blood pressure. They also put on the urine tube so that my urine can be passed automatically and I wasn't supposed to have any food intake or drink.. 

I told the nurse I would like to donate my baby cord blood to the cord blood bank and I passed them the donation document which I had prepared earlier on. I also told them that I would like to have skin to skin contact after birth and to do breastfeeding. I also told them I do not want any epidural .

My mum wasn't allowed to join me in the maternity room so she left. I just relaxed and rest. While waiting, I went to text my superior and requested them to help to return my library book on 'hypno birthing' and to gave my unopened bottle of honey aloe vera drink to the cleaner aunty. I brought the drink the day before thinking of drinking it that day when I went back to office. Talking about hypnobirthing, I was thinking of doing hypnobirth where the birth occurred naturally but read on...In short,I need to flung the idea of doing so out of the window! 

Hubby arrived in the late morning after his lesson and we began to think of her English name.Well, I was inspired by the names shortlisted by the UK royal family for the princess of Prince William.The princess was also due anytime and they shortlisted 3 names for her - Alice , Charlotte and Elizabeth. I picked Alice and we explored the variable of Alice and spotted Alysia. Hubby and I thought that Alysia was nice but too mouthful. End up we named her Alice ,with her surname Tay.Amazingly it coincide with her life path number ,which is 8. The life path number based on her birthday is 8. Alice Tay is also 8. Personally I'm glad her lifepath is 8 because it's the same lifepath as me. Being an 8 means that potentially your financial status is good.For me I am not rich but my financial status is quite alright.

When the doctor arrived in the afternoon, the nurse informed my OB that I do not want any epidural. The doctor examined my dilation and I gave a sharp shout! To be honest, I felt that he did it deliberately because I could feel that he was being rough. The OB told me that my threshold of tolerance is not that high and this pain was only 1/10 of the actual labor. He advised me to go on epidural because it cannot be administered during the actual labor.. I readily agreed since it was my first birth and the OB must be very experience to see such cases and I trusted his advise.

After that he went to get another doctor to put on epidural for me and the waiting game begun. My OB told me I would delivered by end of the day. So I just relaxed and wait because I did not know what to expect during a labor.In addition, I wanted to conserve my energy until labor since I wasn't allowed any food intake.

In the evening, the nurse noticed the baby's heartbeat was low and put on the oxygen mask for me to push in more oxygen to bump up the heartbeat  rate. That happened a few times.. During the wait, I felt the contraction pain on my thigh and the nurse told me not to increase my epidural dosage because I may have difficulty pushing the baby later on. Anyway the epidural did a great job in removing most of my contraction pain and the dilation test, so I thought the pain was bearable.

Later in the evening, the midwife and nurses came and told me I was ready to give birth since the dilation is around 9-10cm. They asked me to push but I have no clue on how and what to push because I felt nothing. It could be due to the epidural. I just did my best for the next 30 min to do the 'pushing and the head appear. Just when I thought I could go natural without any episiotomy,my OB arrived.He just told me he would assist me to give birth and asked me to push. He snipped me and put the vacuum and after 3 push, the baby popped out!

The OB asked my hubby to cut the cord but before he did that, he asked my my hubby to shout 'I am your father!' for 3 times before cutting. I was relieved that he did that because it would delay the cord cutting time which allowed the cord blood to settle down before removing from the baby.The baby was wailing so hard.

The nurses told me they need to wipe the baby and did a quick checkup and injection of the vitamin K before letting me have the skin to skin contact. They took around few minutes and the baby was still crying and her voice seems to get louder and louder. Someone said her lung is pretty healthy as she's crying louder and louder.

I saw a miracle when the nurse put the baby on my neck for the skin to skin contact. The baby stopped crying immediately. I was shocked and I felt so powerful because I could stop the wailing immediately!

While calming the baby, the OB purged out my placenta and stitched me up. After that he processed the cord blood for the donation.

I was quite relieved that everything went smoothly and I was wheeled back to the ward for recuperation and my baby Alice went to the nursery. It was already 11.45pm when i was back in the ward...getting ready for a new role as a MOTHER.

Throughout my pregnancy I did not attend any prenatal course as I thought childbirth is a natural process where the baby would just pop up when they are ready.I'm sure with an experience OB , the labor would be a smooth one.

Thank you Dr Koh for helping me to deliver Alice successfully and smoothly.