Labour #1 - The whole ordeal

Warning: This post contains explicit details & images.
Pls leave the site if you're not up for it
(This has been written up purely FMI as a reminder of what I would need to prepare myself for should we have our second child!)

Prior to becoming pregnant, I had always been very inquisitive to find out exactly how labour pain is like. After all, I'm a woman & I know ultimately I would need to face the dreaded music. So the first person I asked back when I was only a primary school girl was of course my own mother. She described it as 'very very painful experience to the point where scissors would be required to cut 'down there'. The thought of an incision down there already gave me the shivers.

Then I asked all of my cousin sisters who all told me it feels like a very very bad period pain or it feels like you have to go to the toilet.. but a tad worse than that..

"Ok bang sai pain & period pain dóesn't sound all that bad especially since I have a high pain threshold..." well so I thought.

Since I'm a very impatient person, I managed to convince Mr M for me to induce the baby on our due date Vs waiting for him to come late. After all I had enough of everyone's sms/email/phone calls asking me if I've delivered & also the lack of sleep at night since he had grew to become a giant watermelon in my tummy.

My first ever Labour Experience:
So on Sunday 7th Sept, Kelvin & I took all of our luggages as if we were going on a vacation, said our good byes to my mum & dad and checked into Knox Private at 6pm.

When we got there, dinner was already there for the both of us to enjoy. We watched TV until about 9pm for my doctor to arrive. Finally Dr Chew came at 9pm as she had totally forgotten about my appointment with her to induce the bub (as she was busy celebrating her 6th year wedding anniversary dinner with her family). So finally at 9:30pm, she took her fingers & poked me down there to apply Progestin Gel in order to soften the cervix. The experience was not comfortable at all but I thank God she was a small Asian with small fingers as oppose to a big tall Aussie bloke.

Fifteen minutes later, she left the both of us to enjoy a good night's rest at the hospital before the big marathon the next day. After applying the Progestin Gel, I kept on getting bad Braxton Hicks contractions which was just as bad which resulted me in getting only 3hrs sleep.

At 7am on Monday 8th, both Kelvin & I took all of the things needed for my induction into the delivery suite. The room looked so cold, sterile & terribly frightening... Nevertheless, I took a big breath for what was about to come.

Doctor Chew arrived at 7:30am ready to perform a VE (Vaginal Examination aka Internal Examination). So she stuck her finger again to feel how soft the cervix was & then she took the very long plastic stick that looks very similar to a knitting needle and poked me down there to break my water. I think it was the longest one minute of my life! It was extremely uncomfortable and I was so thankful when all of a sudden, water just flowed out of me uncontrollably. It was such a bizarre feeling!

She then let me rest for one hour with a normal drip on my hand before finally putting on the 2nd drip that would be the Oxytocin hormone that triggers labour. This was probably the hardest one to take out of the lot. By this time it was about 8am.

Because this was an induction, it means the doctor/midwife would control the speed of my labour by setting the level of Oxtyocin pumped into my bloodstream. Every time the doctor came in, she would up the level. But every time I was in so much pain, the midwife was kind enough to lower the level. However, once again when Dr Chew came back into check on me, she would up it to a higher level in order to speed up the labour. My true labour came at 9am which was when it became very hard to even talk. It was such hardwork to get through each contraction as you need to breathe, relax & allow the cervix to dilate as much as possible without you having to tense up with the pain.

I was proud to say that I did really well for the first 6hrs of my labour using only the T.E.N.S machine and without any drugs at all for my pain relief. The T.E.N.S really helped me to direct my contractions (which feels like a very bad period pain mixed with wanting to poo pain times it by 100 times worse) to my back. It worked really well to the point that I was about to fall asleep whenever I had a break from my contractions as the T.E.N.S really gave good back massage therapeutic relief. I would rest for about 1-2minutes before the next contraction would come. At 2:30pm, after performing the midwife did the 3rd VE (which mind you didn't hurt at all when you're in labour b/c contractions had override that pain), she told me I was only 5cm dilated. I tell you I was sooooo disappointed & really wished the doctor would just cut me up and get the baby out instead.

Anyway, at 3pm, baby Zach did something naughty to mummy. He decided to turn to a posterior position. Because of this, his head could not fit through my cervix but instead with every contraction, his head was hitting my back pelvic bone & the feeling was like as if my rectum was about to fall out of my anus. It was such an overwhelming pain & my poor baby's head was also grazed throughout the ordeal. The worse pain I had ever felt in my life. I went through about 5 contractions with this extreme pain before crying out to everyone for an epidural shot as I had realised I would not be able to cope with another 6hrs of this type of intense pain.

After crying this out to my midwife, she immediately got onto the phone to get my doctor's permission to take the epidural (by that time, she was at another hospital performing a C-Sec on another patient of hers & told me she would be back at 4pm). Once Dr Chew gave me the green light, the midwife then ran into the surgery room to find the anaesthesist who thank God was in the surgery room managing a C-Sec patient of his (usually anaesthesist are hardly in the hospital but rather on call when they are needed. I was so thankful that one of them was on site when I screamed out for my epidural). The midwife then ran back to me to say the anaesthetist will be coming in in half hour's time. I tell you this was the longest half hour of my life. I had to go through at least 20 contractions of intense pain & I seriously was about to die right there and then cos every time the contractions came, my rectum felt like it was about to fall out of my anus!

At about 20minutes later, the anaesthesist finally came to perform a spinal which is a lesser dose to an epidural. Spinal is basically an injection given to the spine to numb the lower part of your body and will usually wear out in about 5hrs time & takes a longer process for the anaesthetic to be effective. Epidural on the other hand is a drip that is continuous & numbness will not wear out until the doctor removes the drip out of your hand and numbness is immediate.

Finally after he had injected my spine while I was going through a contraction, I had to wait for about ten minutes before I could completely feel no pain! Once again, ten minutes meant another 7 contractions! I made the anaesthesist to give me a another dose of it because I could still feel the awful pain even with the single shot. After that, a catheter which is a small plastic-pipe-like-instrument was being inserted up through the cervix & into the urethra to expel my urine. That was definitely not a comfortable feeling as I could still feel the midwife poking me down there despite getting the spinal.

After the spinal was fully effective, I tell you it was the best feeling in the world. I was ready to sleep through the contractions as I felt absolutely no pain! By about 4:15pm, while waiting for my doctor to arrive, my midwife did another VE & told me I was fully dilated (ie. 10cm & ready to push). I was worried because I couldn't fully feel my lower body so how on earth was I suppose to push?

After about 40 minutes of pushing, my doctor told me I would need intervention. So she chose the vacuum cup to be used to rotate baby Minga's head in the right place. Before doing this, she had to do an incision down there to ensure there was enough space for the suction cup. Thank God for the spinal as I couldn't feel anything except to see & hear the scissors cut away. After ten minutes of using the vacuum cup with each push & some coughing to ensure baby doesn't come out too fast, baby Minga was finally pushed out at 5:10pm and immediately placed on my chest.

I remember seeing my baby's complexion colour. He was totally blue & purple in colour. Luckily the midwife had told me that this is perfectly normal in the antenatal class otherwise I would've freaked out. All this adrenalin rush gave me more energy & awareness to caress him even though he was covered in vernix.

Then about five minutes later, I saw & felt my placenta bag coming out of my inside. Oh my it felt sooooo weird as if my entire stomach had fallen out! My poor hubby also saw it and nearly beng sung too! hahaha...

So will I go through the labour again for our second child? absolutely! I will probably do the same thing again the second time around - using T.E.N.S for as long as I can tolerate & then taking the spinal (vs the full epidural) for the last stage as I would still have some sensation for the last stage of pushing.

So to all the women out there who will undoubtedly go through labour at some stage of your life... all I can say is... 'good luck - don't give up, hang in there & go for the epidural if you need it! You won't even feel the gigantic horse needle going through your spine when the contractions come! And all the pain would be all worth it when you receive your bundle of joy after the tough marathon'

L: A plastic tube going through my skin ready for the drips...(boy this hurt like anything!)
R: newborn's incubator


L: CTG scan which monitors the baby's heartbeat as well as mummy's heartbeat with each contraction
R: Here's me in labour doing well before baby decided to change position


Finally baby Minga's out into the world!