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I'd like to think my story is unique but I don't really know what other moms have been through.
On January 26th, i went in for my millionth pre-natal check up. At this point I was considered to be well overdue as I was 42 weeks pregnant. After going through the usual check up the Ob/Gyn decided to have me admitted into the hospital there and then where I would have to be medically induced into labour.
After having changed into my night gown, I was strapped to a cardiograph machine so they could
monitor how the baby was doing. About an hour later I was taken to thematernity ward where I was to be medicated along with 6 other women who were also being medically induced.
From about 4pm and every 2 hours after that we had to drink our medication. At around 2am, after taking my 6th dose of that horrid stuff, my contractions began in earnest. I had contractions every 15 seconds by my count however the nurses didn't think it was that bad as I wasn't even 5cm dilated yet.
At 5am, I was strapped to a cardiograph again just so they could monitor the frequency and intensity of my contractions as well as my daughter's heart rate. An hour or so later, a nurse came to check the chart from the cardiograph and boy did she not look happy. A few minutes later another sister came to me to insert a drip into my arm to ease the pain before she escorted me to the labour ward. And she made me walk there in my condition.
When we arrived, i was hooked up to another cardiograph. After about15-30 minutes of bearing through my intense contractions, something unexpected happened. The pain became so intense that I found myself pushing. That was the point my water broke.
I told the nurse that was looking after me what had happened. She simply checked and wrote it
down in my file. About 5 minutes later, at exactly 07:05 that Friday morning(January 27th, 2012), I nded up pushing again however this time my baby lay between my legs kicking and crying. I had just given birth.
The crazy thing though is that I gave birth without a doctor,nurse or even midwife with me in the room. I was completely alone when my angel entered this world. Luckily, the nurse walked into the room just as my daughter started crying and immediately sprang into action. It was rather frantic in my room as now almost all the nurses still on duty in the ward were in my room attending to both me and my baby.
The worst thing was that by delivering on my own, I had badly torn my vagina (I didn't know that as there was no pain). I received around 12 sutures. 4 hours after giving birth, I was tranferred back to the maternity ward where I was reunited with my bundle of joy.
Looking back at my experience now, makes it all worth it knowing that I gained more than I lost that day. Aiko (pronounced eye-ko) was born at a healthy 2.95kg. I thank God everyday for giving me such a gift. She's 9 months old now and an absolute joy to be around.
