My Delivery Story (Part 2)

Hello there..
Here is the continuation of my delivery story. Happy reading..  ^^

I woke up at around 6.00AM on the 5th of March 2012. Even though I didn't really have quality sleep, something told me to get up. So I had a light breakfast of sandwiches and 3-in-1 Milo (provided by RMC) and went to take my bath after requesting for a new 'hospital' gown. At about 7.00AM just as I was about to lie down again and resume sleeping, I saw a lady peeking into my makeshift cubicle from behind the curtain.

When she saw that I was awake (and decently covered I suppose) she swept the curtain aside to reveal another woman. Turns out that they were both midwives and they started to ask me questions. Have I had my breakfast? Have I showered? How many times was I induced with the pill? How was I feeling? After that they told me that I was to go to the Delivery Theater (DT) where I would be induced with a drip called Pitocin.

That got my heart racing. Why? Because Pitocin is notorious for being a more forceful way of inducement and it is said to hurt even worse than normal birth. One of the midwives, Jenny, recommended that I went to the loo first before going to the DT and I thought "Oh bugger. Things are always nasty when they tell you to go to the loo first". I did as I was told and before I went into the DT I told boo, who had stayed with me throughout the night, to tell my mum and sister about the new development.

In the DT I was given the Pitocin drip and strapped to a CTG machine. My blood pressure was checked several times *what I forgot to mention was that I never had any high blood pressure throughout my pregnancy but I developed high blood pressure on the day I checked into RMC. Weird right?*  and not long after that surprise, surprise, my aunt came in through the curtain. Boy was I glad to see her. I thought that I wan't going to have a chance to see my family members again before going into labour. As a first time mother, to say that I was petrified was an understatement as I didn't know what to expect. *I mean, people can tell you that it hurts like the Devil but if you haven't met the Devil himself that description is still kind of useless right?*

What made me really grateful was my aunt's encouraging words,"You are a Robert. We Roberts don't quit easily". It made me really want to live up to that name. I was determined to get through delivery and live to tell the tale. Too soon, my aunt had to leave for an important meeting. Boo was with me and as we were talking, the curtains rustled again and my sister peeked in. They only permitted her a short time with me and my mum replaced her, also with a short time limit.

When my mum left, Rosemary, the other midwife looked at my reading and frowned. She called Jenny in and Jenny pressed gently against my tummy. Half an hour had passed since I started on Pitocin by then and I realized that I haven't felt any pain yet. Jenny adjusted something at the drip and they both left me and boo alone again. 15 minutes later they came back in and asked me if I was feeling any pain. I said no. Jenny looked at the reading of the CTG machine and pressed her hand on my tummy once more. "Dr.Ramesh will be up to see you in a minute," she said.

True enough Dr. Ramesh swept into the room in his usual brisk fashion and said that he wanted to do a VE on me. "I only use one finger okay," he said echoing what I once read in another delivery story post by one of his former patient. That made me smile. After he did the VE (not painful at all I might add), I saw him frowning. He told us that the baby is still 'high up' and that my cervix was not opened at all, not even 1cm. "Something is wrong," he said. "Give her up to 11AM. Until then, KIV C-section." he instructed the midwives.

To be perfectly honest, I did have a feeling that I might undergo a C-sect for my delivery the last few weeks leading up to my EDD so I wasn't terribly shocked. I must admit, I was strangely calm. That didn't mean that I  was looking forward to being cut up and stitched like a piece of cloth. There was also the thought of being helpless and unable to get up on my own that scared me a bit. Jenny asked me if I wanted to continue the drip until 11AM to see if I would make progress for a normal delivery or if I wanted to get off the drip and opt directly for a C-sect.

"It's up to you but you're already at 20 drops you know. That's pretty high and still there's nothing happening. The probability of you getting a C-sect is almost a certainty. If you get off the drip, at least you can have some rest,"she said. Deep in my heart I knew what she said was true but I decide to wait another hour until about 10.20AM to get off the drip. I don't want to have any regrets, so to speak. Sure enough, my contractions were almost non-existent. By the time I was taken off the drip and went to my cubicle it was already 10.35AM. Scarcely 5 minutes later, Rosemary came into cubicle with a wheelchair and said that the Operating Theater (OT) was ready. My heart started to thump loudly in my ears...

To be continued...

Love,
Phoebe