Our boy was born on 9 of February 2013. But one week before his birth we had a regular appointment with the doctor. During the examination doctor noticed that the “level of amniotic fluid is low” and that we should have consider induction of labor. You can not imagine how it offset my entire system 🙁 we have been given time till 6 of February and came back home. I have been crying for three days at run because I could not believe that my dreams about natural and gentle birth for our baby could end up even prior to the actual birth in this way 🙁 I kept thinking and thinking about it days and nights and I told Rais that we should check once again the level of this amniotic fluid. We went to a very senior doctor who has better equipment. When that doctor saw the scan he said: “there is plenty of water! Of cause it is less now but it is normal at this stage of the pregnancy”. He told us that we can rest assured that this level of water is absolutely alright for at least one more week and than we may need to check again. You cannot imagine how me and Rais were happy.
We hurried to our doctor with this new scan results. While we were waiting in the lobby I started to have very strange sensations – like a menstrual cramp and just like I had from time to time throughout pregnancy but this time around they were persistent and were coming with certain intervals regularly.. When our turn came I informed doctor about my sensations and she said that she never checked for my cervix.. When she checked she said that it is already dilated 3 cm and that I am having contractions although they are very mild. She also suggested that we might consider admission.
Of course my man started to panic but we came home and as he had meeting I was left at home alone. I went to take shower and after nice hot shower all the sensations faded away! So when he came back home I told him that it is better if we stay at home and see how it progresses. But he was afraid and wanted to go to hospital.. And when he said that he was waiting for this babu 16 years I gave up.. We went to hospital.
When we arrived in the ward the midwife put me on CTG for 30 min and it did not show much activity. There were contractions but they were quite far apart (every 15 minutes) and they were also very mild so that i even could hardly feel them. Thats why the midwife suggested us to go home, our doctor said the same thing. But my husband was of different opinion so he persuaded me to stay by saying that if we go home now we may not get the same room when we come back.. The room that we were in wad the room with the water pool! So we stayed..
And we stayed and we waited… And waited.. It was very slow, lingering – resting labor. We were admitted on Tuesday and we stayed and waited Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.. Nothing much was happening except as doctor was monitoring there was dilation taking place but very slow.. One cm per day. By Friday night it was 5 cm but the cervix was extremely soft according to the doctor.. Never the less contractions pattern was the same – chaotic although it was now closer (approximately 5 minutes apart)
On Friday night I was already so exhausted because of the long stay in hospital and sleepless nights (you can imagine how it is to sleep in hospital :(..) so we started think what should we do.. Doctor said that if I want we can introduce pitocin at a very low level and see how it goes. I agreed to do it but on Saturday.. So that we could wait one more night. Although I agreed my heart was not content with it and I kept praying that it picks up on its own.. That Friday night around 1:30 a.m. I started to have stronger contractions and at very regular intervals of 5 minutes. They were exactly like waves coming down and than pulling cervix apart.. And the sensation was like menstrual cramps very easy to cope with.. I was laying down in my bed so happy 🙂 practicing surge breathing with every surge..it was so peaceful.. My husband came back after conference call and i told him that i think now this is it 🙂 he asked if he should call anyone. I refused straightaway as i was so happy the surges finally picked up the strength that i was so afraid anyone will mess it up again. So I asked him to go back home and allow me to labor in peace and we see what happens in the morning. He left.. I was sleeping through the surges which was coming down to the front of my uterus. But around 3 or 4 o’clock at night something happen that i was not prepared for at all.. The surges started to come in such a way that i felt no waves any more and not in front and bottom of my uterus but at my back bone 🙁 and those were quite strong sensations.. To cope with them i tried surge breathing but i found that it not only did not help but exaggerated the sensation.. This is when i started to panic little bit (what happened actually as i think is my cervix is posterior and when baby’s head was descending after certain time it started to push on my back bone and that was not easy to control).. So then i started to think how i can help myself to relax.. I tried different postures.. I tried my birthing ball.. Nothing helped.. Then i went to bathroom, turned on hot shower and squatted there in shower and stayed like that for some time..oh it brought me so much relief!!!!! I think i spent there an hour or so.. :-)) then i returned to bed and remembered that i brought iPod with our relaxation scripts which i was always listening and they put me asleep.. So i plugged earphones in my ears hoping it can have the sane effect on me as I needed sleep 🙁 well i did not fall asleep but it did relaxed me so much that i was able to cope with those strong sensations in my back bone..and i did not even noticed as time passed and it was already 9 a.m. My husband came back around 10 a.m i think and doctor also came.. She checked for cervix dilation and she said it is still 5 cm but closer to 6 cm and ask them to put me on CTG.. She said she will come back at around 11:30 a.m. She did come to check cervix again.. It was already 7 cm.. That is when to my relief she said that now i can go to the pool!!! 🙂 and she requested staff to prepare it and meanwhile to put me on CTG again.. Oh this was the most difficult part.. Because this CTG disturbs your relaxation so I could not wait when those 45 minutes will pass and i can get into pool.. When they finish CTG pool was not ready yet 🙁 so i went to shower again and squatted under the hot shower.. And as soon as i did that i felt the desire to push.. I could not believe it because doctor just checked and it was only 7 cm..but it was desire to push. Midwife cane looking for me in the shower to say that the pool is ready.. I hardly could walk towards it..when i got inside the pool i immediately felt the relief for my back bone! I think it was 12 o’clock. But the urge to push started to come overwhelmingly.. I told this to midwife and she told me to come closer to her so that she can check for dilation.. She did and she exclaimed that it is 9 cm and she rushed out to call for our doctor.. My husband was very silent sitting next to the pool holding my hand.. All this while he was by my side and i asked him to stay like that do not touch me because this sensation in my back bone was very strong and only my body knew and learnt it in the process how to relax.. So any touch from anyone else only brought distraction to me.. Then doctor came.. I think i really had that natural time distortion i know this took around one hour or one hour and half since i got into pool but it seemed to me as half hour not more! In the water it was not easy to use birth breathing because gravity was not there and was not really helping..but still between the urges to push i used birth breathing.. My doctor was very encouraging.. She kept repeating that i am doing good job.. And when i realized that since gravity is not there and it is not really working the way i thought..few times the idea crossed my mind: “maybe i should get out to the dry land”..and i think i could do that if not my Doctor’s kind encouragement and pacifying! Finally at 1:30 pm with one push his head emerged and with the very next push his whole body slipped out so easily 🙂 doctor put him in my arms and they all including my husband helped me to get on the bed.. And then all medical staff left me, my husband and our newborn son to bond.. 🙂 the baby was so peaceful, he dud not cry.. He was very alert.. He found nipple and started to suckle himself! Only after 2 and half hours medical staff came back to cut the umbilical cord and take care if the placenta..
:-)) it was not easy to fight for this all natural and unmediated birth of our baby boy. But we did it together with my husband..and surprisingly doctor was more than supportive of us.. Of course in case of emergency she would have to do the needy, but she was very supportive of my desire to have it all natural! 🙂
At the end, thank you so much Nadine from me and from our Muhammad Kamal Hassan! He had very gentle beginning of his life in this world! May Allah bless and reward you and your entire family for what you are doing! Ameen
