39 hours in labour

I’m a mother of 3 boys, 11, 9 and 1 years old. My most memorable labour was when I had my first boy. The EDD was 28 September 2000. We waited and waited but nothing happened.

Finally I checked into TMC on the morning of 6 October to be induced. I was strapped to the machine in the normal ward the whole day, it shows that there was contraction but I don’t any pain. After 22 hours, I was pushed to the labour ward. My cervix was only 1.5cm dilated. As it was my first pregnancy, I really wanted to experience natural birth, so we waited again. Gynae came shortly at about 9am to break my waterbag. What happens after was really a torture.

I was in great labour pain. I opted for the laughing gas, it made me so giddy but the pain was still there. Then, I asked for the jab on the thigh were it was supposed to reduce the pain but it didn’t help either. Finally at 1pm, I was given epidural. By then I was only 3cm dilated. The pain after epidiral was still unbearable. The nurses have to adjust me to lie side way. The epidural dosage was increased but I still felt pain. By then, I was running fever. I was given some milo and 2 panadols, each panadol cost $5!! At 9pm, about 35 hours into labour, I was only 5cm dilated. My gynae said I could still wait if I wanted..so we waited. By 1am, almost 39 hours later, there was blood in my urine and we have to sign the form to go for emergency c-section!

On 8 October 2000 at 0147hrs, Darryl was born. My gynae estimated him to be 3kg before birth but he came out as a 4.23kg baby! If we had known him to be so huge, we would have gone for c-section right away. Looking into the nursery, we could find our baby right away as he was a giant among the tiny babies.

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