My Birth Story

(left to right) - Birth Room, Me just laid down after pre-birth preparations before the onset of contractions









8:55pm Proceed to labour ward.

9:20pm Gynae arrives and checks cervix, still 2cm. Next thing I know, feel gush of warm fluid rushing out. Asked gynae did he just break my water. Thought he was going to insert pessary for inducement. However, gynae said no need to induce, break water and let labour start. Well, ok …

10:10pm Proceed to birth room 3 to wait out. Quickly msg hb to come to keep me company.

10:30pm First feel of contractions. Bearable. Let it pass.

11:00pm Contractions are FINALLY coming hard and fast! Breathing exercises, tahan tahan.

12:00mn Contractions driving me nuts. Gasp for etonox. Gas making it worse. Decides not to use it. Doesn’t help much too. Concentrate on breathing exercises, yet again.

12:20am Situation not too good. With every contraction, finding it harder and harder to breathe. Can feel lungs starting to wheeze – asthma acting up. Shaking from the pain too. Hb asks me to take epidural and not to tahan anymore. I told him never mind, I want to try to tahan.

12:45am I finally throw in the towel! Cannot risk elevating my blood pressure too and decides not to be hero. Hb quickly informs nurse to call for anaesthetist.

01:15am Epidural administered.

06:10am Goodness!! After so many hours, only another 1cm dilated making it 3cm. I thought with epidural, dilation would come swiftly! I was so wrong!

07:45am Still 3cm dilated. Epidural wearing out. Feeling the pain. Where’s the nurse?? What happened? I thought not supposed to feel pain? Not sure, ask nurse. Nurse said supposed to feel some pain. But such piercing pain?? Why then should I spend money for epidural to feel pain. Agitated. Want to speak with Anaesthetist to confirm.

09:45am Gynae came. Some improvements – 4 to 5cm dilated. Phew!

10:00am Put on drip to increase contractions. But epidural wearing thin and am already on max, how?? Never mind, Anaesthetist coming later.

11:50am Still 5cm dilated.

12:00pm Shaking and vomited a large bowl of water and gastric juice. Getting worried as baby’s heartbeat dips whenever I get a contraction. Nurse contacts gynae. Gynae said not to worry and continue with stepping up of the drip.

01:00pm Anaesthetist drops by to check on me. Apparently, the 2nd shift nurse did not follow her instructions hence I had to endure painful contractions. Dr Tan gave nurse an earful. She then explained to me that I should not feel any pain and she also didn’t want me to feel any pain so that I would not be stressed and have my BP elevated. She said I should only feel pressure not pain. Ok, understood. Dr Tan then instructed the nurse to use the new vial of stronger painkiller when the current one finishes.

02:15pm Gynae comes by again and increases drip as he says that contraction not strong enough to push baby out.

03:11pm Senior midwife comes along, checks my cervix - 6 to 7cm dilated and confirms that baby is facing outwards instead of the normal back to front. Cervix also a little swollen as baby head/face is ‘stuck’, difficult to move down. This explains the super long and painful labour. Never mind, I will endure. How long also never mind as long as baby is ok and I don’t need a c-sect.

05:20pm I am so tired, thirsty and hungry. Gynae is here again to check on me. Gosh! Still 6 to 7cm dilated. Gynae breaks the news that if I still can’t dilate or make any progress by 7 to 8pm, I will have to go for c-sect.

06:00pm Frantic. Don’t want to go c-sect after enduring all these. Intermittently, asks for direct epidural shots as feeling the sharp pains again. Realised that the nurse still using the old vial. I asked her why didn’t she changed yet and she said there are still some left. Told her, to change it immediately as I can’t be bothered to finish the old one as not effective enough! Duh?? At this stage, still bother to be so economical and endeavour to finish one before using another meh??

At this time, I am feeling as if someone is tearing me apart and breaking everything below my waist and as if my pelvis has exploded!

06:05pm Start to pray and use Mrs Wong’s deep relaxation method as I can’t sleep although I’m so tired.

07:45pm Waiting for American Idol to come on, hope to watch so can take my mind off. Nurse walks in and checks my cervix - 8 to 9cm dilated and baby very low already - great!! She then asks me to try pushing. Ok, prop up everything. Teaches me how to push and away I went. We did 3 sets of 3 pushes. Nurse said I could push very well and asked hb to come to the front to see baby’s hair as I pushed.

08:30pm Gynae arrives and prepares all his stuff.

08:46pm Gave 3 pushes. On 3rd push, Kimi was on my chest! Delivered in 5 mins assisted with vacuum.

So glad and thankful that I could go the natural way. The pushing and delivering was easy but the wait from 1cm to 10cm was agonising!! My total labour hours – 22+ hours not including the time I checked in!!


So was it worth it? YES!! Especially when I called out to Kimi while he was on the warming table and he turned to my voice direction and SMILED!!!