Birth Story #3

*** For my 6 other birth stories, go to My Birth Stories ***

 

This time round, I was determined to avoid pethdine in our labour. And I had thought that I could ask for the same sign from God to know when to go to the hospital. But like I said before there is no magic “formula”. We need to hear from God each time.

Yes, my waterbag did break but the cotnractions were only 10min apart and did not progress. Hmm…So should I go or not? To complicate matters, there was meconium in the waters passed.

According to what I have read, it may signal that baby is in distress. And yet there was an incredible peace about waiting it out. So I waited and waited. I walked, I squatted, I went on all-fours but the contractions remained at 7 – 10 min apart.

This time round, my parents had been called to come and mind the children and they were also hanging around, wondering what was happening. I called a friend who said that I hsould go to the hospital “just in case”. Dh and I prayed and discussed and decided that we will go to the hospital to just check the status of the baby.

Surprisingly, everyone at the hospital was very calm even when I told them that my baby had passed meconium. They did the usual exams and put the CTG monitor on to check the baby’s heartbeat.

The dr came in and said that baby is fine and the only “problem” was that I had to stay in bed, hooked up to the CTG coz they wanted to monitor the baby’s condition closely! That was a bummer coz I did not feel comfortable. Lying down on my back always hurts!

I was all ready to argue with the dr that I didn’t want to be induced. But the dr didn’t bring it up at all and then he leaves to perform communion (this was a Sunday morning) at his church!

But from the moment I had checked in (slightly before 10am) till 12 nn, I was still at 4cm dilation! Althought the contractions were strong and consistent, the dilation just wasn’t progressing. So I prayed. Dh prayed.

Suddenly (to me) at 1:45pm I needed to push. The mideife scuttles in to check and she yells “Call the dr!’. Lol! She claimed I was 9cm but I am sure I was a 10! She said that I needed to wait for the dr, so I took the offer of the gas mask to control the urge to push & to calm myself down.

Five pushes later – the baby came whooshing out! Drug free, pain free, Exhilarating!

And the best part of all was when the dr said that he was going to suggest induction so that he could go and perform communion but decided not to! Wow! The hand of God is mighty and protects!