30th Nov (1 day past my EDD) 11am – felt mild surges but not enough to bother me. started the day early with breakfast and plans on going to a shopping mall to get snacks in preperation for birth. Bloody show soon after but surges still irregular.
Called hospital and was adviced to drop by after lunch for a CTG scan.
After getting off the phone, was still thinking of going for some shopping but since the contraction was making me feel uncomfortable, we decided to go to the hospital straight away.
The normally 45minutes drive seems like hours and my trusted birth companion (my Bubu) kept track of my surges.
2pm – reached hospital, and was already 3cm dilated. Doctor adviced to stay in and he said that i could go in the birthing pool only when i’m 5cm dilated. Surges were already 5 minutes apart.
At around 5pm, I was allowed to go into the pool. warm, soothing, body tempareture water help ease the surges. Lights were dimmed and had on some instrumental background music to set the mood.
Stayed in the pool up until 10pm, having no idea on my progress, got out of the pool and just rested in bed for about an hour.
Determined to get things moving, I went back in but this time more squatting and leap frog position in the pool to speed up labor. It was also instinctive to move my hips in a circular motion. At around 1am my waterbroke. “Ahh! i felt something!”. VE done and was ONLY 5cm dilated! at that point the surges were intense and i could not believe it was still 5cm. Couldnt imagine going through a few more hours with that kind of pain. with every surge i felt baby moving downwards but the midwife told me not to push. Had to vocalize during each surge.
At 3am, told the midwife couldnt hold it in any longer. she said dont push. she did VE and i was already 9cm. “dont push i’ll call doctor!”. It took me all i had not to push.
Once doctor confirmed that i was fully dilated, tried my very best to breathe baby out. The surges were so intense and beyond my pain threshold but all i could think of is breathing my baby out. At that moment i lost all sense of time. It could have been a few minutes, it could have been an hour. Noises around me seems to drown but every spoken word , so clear to me.
“Push!” “Wait for contraction. Take a deep breath and push as hard as you can.” “You can do it” “look at her feet” said a midwife while poking at my wrinkled toes. that made me laugh a bit at the whole birthing scene. one moment i was so focused in pushing, another it seems that i was looking at the whole birthing pool from the outside… “Breathe.”
Finally, at the point of no return, my Bubu said that he could see baby’s hair, and he encouraged me to push a bit more. With the intense surge i pushed with everything that i’ve got and birthed my baby out on a beautiful calm (somewhat calm, minus all the cheering and all my screaming) Sunday morning. 1st Dec 2014, 3.39kg, 4.26am
