The umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck we're gonna have to get her out now
you're gonna have to push and push as hard as you can.
A wave of fear took over me, the room was the most intense it had been in 34 hours.
My husband was by my side with tears running down his face.
He squeezed my hand looked deep into my eyes and assured:
Honey you can do this, I love you, she's almost here.
My body was shaking I was terrified, but I pulled myself together,
I took a deep breath and I told myself:
Okay my baby needs me right now I'm going to have to push as hard as I can.
I can do this, I will do this for her.
It all started about 35 hours before when I was lying wide awake in the middle of the night.
I was 39 weeks pregnant and almost every night was extremely uncomfortable
For six months I slept only on my left side completely surrounded by pillows,
separating me farther and farther from my husband.
Then I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my stomach.
I looked at the clock and it was only 3:00 a.m. so I wondered:
Why does my stomach hurt right now? it normally never hurts.
Oh my god am I having a contraction??!!
So I turned and gently nudged my husband who immediately bolted out of bed screaming:
We have to go to the hospital we have to call the doula. our baby will be here in the morning!
I'm so so excited!
Yeah. it's been a long wait and we were both concerned because we would have had to start
considering a cesarean if she wouldn't come out by the end of the week.
But, I calmed him down and instead I started timing my contractions and writing them in my notebook:
Between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. the pain is coming only every 30 minutes.
It didn't seem so bad but it was still too painful to try to sleep.
To be honest at that point I still wasn't sure if it was really it,
because I had no idea what contractions were supposed to feel like.
but then I had diarrhoea.
Some friends told me that that's the body's way of flushing itself to prepare for birth.
I thought to myself wow this is really happening.
I'm kind of mean my daughter really soon.
The doctor told me that I should call my doula when my contractions were coming closer together
and my doula will call the doctor when I'm ready.
A doula is a birthing coach that is like a highly experienced friend
who gives the kind of emotional support that only someone who has gone through it herself can do.
So at 7:00 a.m. I said my doula a message with everything that had been happening:
hi my contractions are coming around every 30 minutes and would lasts about 40 seconds
But her reply gave me the first shock of the day.
She told me that giving birth for the first time always takes longer
and I was probably not going into labor yet.
Then she said that I could still be days away
and that I should try to relax and get as much sleep as I could.
How can anyone sleep with this much pain.
I was planning for an all-natural birth in water so I trusted her and I did my best
to calm myself down and to try to relax.
But relaxing was proving to be much more difficult than I had thought and it was already 12 hours.
My stomach was hurting so much it's so hard to describe.
Some people say it's kind of like menstrual cramps,
but for me I can't say I've ever felt any kind of pain like this when I had my period.
Around 5:00 p.m. the contractions started to hurt even more and we're moving closer together
15 to 20 minutes apart.
So I texted my doula and I asked her: maybe now I should go to the hospital?
But she said it's not time yet and it's better for me to stay home for as long as possible,
because I would be more relaxed at home than I would be in the hospital.
Right. Relax..
I really tried to bear with the pain for as long as I could,
but around 8 p.m. I was in so much pain I could barely move.
My husband and I stood facing each other holding hands and taking deep breaths together
to try to manage the pain in any way that we could.
Around 10:00 p.m. each contraction lasted about 40 seconds to a minute.
At that point I really felt like I couldn't take it anymore.
So I asked my husband to call the doula and ask her to please come over.
When she arrived she tried to comfort me but really nothing was helping.
The pain kept increasing and increasing until around 1:00 a.m. when I just felt like I couldn't take it anymore.
So I told them please we have to go to the hospital thank God it was only five minutes away.
When we arrived the nurse brought me straight to the delivery room
And she asked me to change my clothes and wait in bed
Then she strapped some belts around me that evaluates the baby's health
That's called a non-stress test
Our doctor arrived around 2 a.m. and gave me the second shock of the day
Women usually give birth once the cervix is opened up to 10 centimeters
While she said my cervix was only dilated 2 centimeters
Then she also said it was gonna take at least another 12 hours maybe even another day
I was speechless. How could this even be possible?
At that point everything started to feel like a blur
The idea of giving birth naturally in water with no pain medication was moving farther and farther away
All I wanted was just to tell the doctor please give me anything to make this pain go away
But my husband knew how much I wanted to give birth without medication
So he asked me just to hold on a little while longer I said, "Okay I will keep trying"
So the nurse went to prepare the tub for water births in the room next door
The delivery room for women who want to give birth naturally was so beautifully decorated
But in that moment I was just in so much pain that I couldn't see anything anymore
All I could think about was how much longer this was gonna take
I felt like I had no energy left
I wasn't even in there for more than 15 minutes before the doctor came in to ask if I wanted an epidural
An epidural is a powerful pain medication that's injected directly into the spine
I answered without even thinking
"Yes, please I can't take it anymore"
So they took me to another room where I had to expose my back for the injection
They told me I had to lay as still as possible
It was excruciating. And once the epidural was in, I still had to wait 15 to 30 minutes before the pain would start to go away
It was a huge relief, but it was also really scary because from the waist down I couldn't feel anything anymore
At around 3:00am, the doctor said to me,
"You're gonna have to try to get some rest because no one knows when you're gonna be ready to give birth"
I tried to sleep but with the mixture of the weird numb pressure around my belly, the excitement of giving birth and the fear that everything could go wrong
Well I was wide awake
The doctor came to check in on me again at 8:00 and 11:00 a.m., but I still wasn't ready
They had to keep administering more and more drugs
When the drugs would wear off I would feel a pain in my lower belly, but I really couldn't tell where exactly
I was just utterly worn out
I remember laying there and thinking to myself, "This is so difficult I just want to meet my baby when will you come out to meet us?"
Around 1:00 p.m., the doctor came back again. And then things suddenly started to happen
She was excited and asked me, "Do you want to try pushing? I think you might be ready!"
I hadn't slept in over 30 hours! Exhausted was an understatement but in that moment I had never felt so ready and so excited
I answered without even a moment of hesitation "Yes, yes I'm ready!"
Like I mentioned before, everything from the waist down was completely numb
But the doctor said that I should just think of pushing and my body would do the rest
So I gave it a try and then everything changed
The doctor jumped up and shouted, "You're ready, you're ready you're pushing great now let's do this right now!"
The nurses were scrambling to transform my bed into a delivery chair.
There were hooks to lift and spread my legs and handles for me to grab on on both sides
I was so excited it was finally happening. From the very first moment that my stomach started hurting until now it was 34 hours
There are no words to describe how I felt in that moment
It was like a combination of exhaustion and excitement and what felt like a veil of magic had descended upon us
My husband held my hand on my right and a nurse held my hand on my left
There were another two supporting the doctor on each side
It was finally happening
The doctor told me that I had to wait for a contraction to push
And then push three times for as long and as hard as I could
So I looked at the clock in front of me and I said to myself,
"Okay I'm going to push for 15 seconds each time"
Because of the epidural I couldn't feel the contractions anymore so a nurse had to use a cardio tocography to measure them
and announce when I'd be ready for the next set
My focus was only on the clock and on pushing those are the only two things in my mind: clock and push
I could hear my husband and the nurses cheering me on and I turned to them occasionally
But my focus always went back to the clock. The entire room felt like it was in a trance
Delivery is the final stage of giving birth and it usually takes around 5 - 30min
But as with everything that day I took longer
I was one and a half hours into pushing and my body was getting weaker and weaker
But my baby girl showed no intentions of coming out
At 2 p.m. the doctor asked if she could cut me a little downstairs
She was convinced that the baby would be out in minutes
"Yes of course", I said
All I wanted was for her to come out and even if I would tear more I, I really just didn't care anymore
I would have done anything for her to come out
After I tried and tried to push with all of my energy the doctor said she started to see the head
"You're going to have to push harder she's so close", she said
I took a deep deep breath and I told myself, "Okay big pushes I can do this
Then I pushed as hard as I could and then it happened
The doctor burst out in happiness and shouted, "She's out the head is out!"
But then, panic struck.
"The umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck there's no more time! You're going to have to push harder push with everything you got or else she could suffocate!"
It felt like time stood still. I looked at my husband and we locked eyes in determination
They grabbed all of my limbs and with one massive final push, the entire room stood still in silence.
Our little baby Rey rose from our doctors arms and the entire room erupted into a celebration
The doctor untangled the cord, my husband cut it into two and the nurses wrapped her in a cloth and handed her to us
I just couldn't stop looking at her. I couldn't believe this was the baby I had been carrying for 9 months
She was just so beautiful. It was love at first sight.
It was the happiest day of my life.
Of course this all is just my experience
Some of my friends gave birth and only a few hours and other mothers took even longer
So, if there are other mothers watching this video, we'd love to hear your story
of giving birth in the comments below
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