Thursday 29 May 2014

My labour and delivery of Eliene

At 34 weeks I went into my appointment with a headache that had been bothering me for 2 days prior. I was weighed and my blood pressure was taken, the nurse paused and told me she would be back.
When the nurse returned it was brought to my attention that my usually lower blood pressure was so through the roof that I was going to explode...
That explained the headache and chest pains!
The doctor regretfully told me I would be induced at 39 weeks and that I was showing signs of pre eclampsia. I was put on meds and sent home full of FEAR that I just bought myself a ticket to a c section in a foreign country by a doctor I had only seen twice.
As time went on the blood pressure didn't let up, neither did my symptoms or my mood. At my 38 week appointment I went in fully expecting to be induced on the spot because of chest pain. I was right.
I was whisked away from my family, admitted, and the induction process started all within 30 minutes. I couldn't believe it.
They gave me a cervical ripener which would take 12 hours to work, though contraction got painful within 5 minutes. I was over responding, which means I was either already in labour when I came ( hence elevated bp) or my body just did not like what I was doing. For 8 more hours I tried to get comfortable while having pretty severe contractions, I danced in my lonely hospital room while my husband took care of Eliana. I figured dancing would lighten my mood and take me out of the scared place I was going into. It was all fun until a nice Filipino nurse walked in... she laughed, I was embarrassed.  It was then that I was told that the contractions weren't showing on the machine.  This discouraged me and I couldn't handle another nurse seeing my moves so I laid down. (Barely laid down, anyone whose been in labour knows you can't lay down)
When they checked me they were shocked to find I was a 5 rather than a 2 and that I HAD been experiencing contractions. It was great news, except my husband was still with Eliana and all of my thoughts were on where Eliana was going to end up and with whom. I guess I started to panic, I had chest pain and dizziness again. 
They left the room and food arrived, I sat up and my water broke. Everything, the panic I felt, the pain, absolutely everything overwhelmed me and I didn't know why.  At this point I was quickly whisked away to the delivery room. By the time we got there I was a six!
So I called my husband for support, he came and we tried all of the coping techniques we knew. I can remember telling him I was going to continue to go naturally, then decided not to, and went back and forth a hundred times walking down a tiny hallway. I was in pain, things were happening fast and I felt like my head was going to explode. My husband was making jokes, I thought I was going to murder him, but luckily I felt the contractions slightly worsen and that saved his life.
Our midwife came, she encouraged me to finish naturally but 15 minutes later I felt as if I was going to faint. I was able to overcome it, but then it happened again. I felt as if I was suffocating, I was shaking and my heart was pounding. Something felt very wrong. We decided to get the epidural even thought we wanted a natural birth. The midwife expressed that she thought I was having an anxiety attack and I chose a good option if it meant that I could relax. ( Turns out I was, and I have had 5 more since. That's another story for another day.)
15 minutes later a wave of calm came over me. I could breathe. I could talk! I laughed with my husband and expressed my fears to my midwife. 
In just about no time it was time to push, my epidural was minimal and I was able to feel everything ( which I prefer). Pushing was strange, at first it was like I forgot how to push, but after trying twice I remembered. I kept apologizing for not remembering, which is funny because I was saying things outloud that I was thinking. Very weird. 24 minutes and I delivered beautiful Eliene!
It was so short compared to my first daughter that I'm still in disbelief.

Alhamdulilah for another relatively 'simple' birth,

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