Birth Story Part 2

After surrendering everything, I fell into a peaceful sleep. At 5 am, I woke up with a sharp spasm and the half hopeful feeling that perhaps this time it was “real.” I stayed in bed for a couple of hours, doing my devotions and language lesson. I texted my husband, who commented that I sounded nonchalant for someone in labour. But I’d had too much false labour to get my hopes up quickly.

At 7, I went to get my toddler up, and suddenly couldn’t lift him out of his playpen. Walking around had ramped the contractions up. I still tried to act casual and went to have a shower. Perhaps it would pause the contractions. In a quick 5-minute shower, I had three contractions. “Okay. Probably having this baby.”

My sister and I talked about our plans. It was 7:30, and I thought we could do some errands and then head to the hospital afterwards to check things out. 15 minutes later, I informed her that we had to go “now.” I couldn’t understand what was happening. The contractions only lasted half a minute, but then another one started the next minute. By the time I went outside, I had to pause before getting into the vehicle. Thankfully, our hospital is close by. I waited until the contraction ended, hopped out and then doubled over as another contraction hit. The security guard stood poised, as if wondering if he would need to grab me at any moment.

As I waited for my sister to park the vehicle, I went to check in. I told the lady I was in labour. She proceeded to ask me several questions, then asked if I wanted to go to the ER waiting room.  I stared at her. “No. I’m in labour!” At this point I was second guessing myself. Obviously, I didn’t seem to be in labour to her. Maybe it was just terrible prodromal labour. How embarrassing! When we finally got up to labour and delivery, they asked how frequently my contractions were coming. I hadn’t been counting, as they had seemed to come one on top of another. Because of my uncertainty, they took their sweet time to check. When they did, they found that I was already on the verge of transition.

I showed my sister the counter pressure position which had helped so much in my first labour. But it did nothing. I tried using a birth ball, but it hurt too much. I ended up on the floor, much to the chagrin of the nurse, as that was the only position that gave a bit of relief. I remembered listening to a blog of a lady who had weeks of prodromal labour followed by quick but super intense back labour. The pain in my spine confirmed my dread. The lady had said she’d had no breaks and was only able to gasp, “God help me!” before the contraction peaked again. I was thankful I had heard her story, because that was all I was able to do as well.

At last, the prodromal roller coaster and backbreaking labour (literally) was over, and my precious son joined us at 10:30am. John 16:21 is so true.  "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world."

How quickly we forget the pain as we delight in the precious gift of life God gives!