My husband Faruk and I were extremely elated when a year into our marriage, a stork had unexpectedly brought us a child. To help us prepare for this new adventure, we both started reading a lot and attended countless parenting seminars. And after all our research, there was one thing that we knew for sure…we wanted a drug-free birth. That meant, no laughing gas, no IV, no Epidural and definitely no induced labour. That was our dream. We wanted our child’s birth to be a simple miracle, not a medical procedure. Things might not have turned out perfectly, but this is my story: Zuleha’s labour.
The harsh reality of Zuleha’s labour
Towards the last week of my estimated date of delivery, I started feeling very uneasy as Sameer was not moving very much. I was also experiencing mild cervical pain, which to my horror I found out was actually contractions! Thankfully, I had a routine check-up scheduled for the next day, the 16th of February. When at the hospital, I mentioned my fears to my Doctor, who after sending me for various tests and scans, confirmed that I was in labour! He also revealed that my water bag was too low, so we decided to induce my labour! After the induction, it took eight hours for my water bag to leak. As the Pitocin began to work, it didn’t seem all that bad.
However, after a couple of hours, the pain and lack of sleep finally began to get to me. I started to get extremely cranky and my coping skills were down to zero! The nurses realising this, decided to place me on laughing gas. Which didn’t help at all! After 25 hours of screaming like a banshee and intermitten sobbing, I finally relented and took the Epidural. My entire pelvic area was sore and my body felt traumatised. Faruk, who started out the day a picture perfect of calm, was by then terrified of me and in shock. He had never seen me act like this before! Thankfully, after taking the jab I was happy as can be. Epidural really eased the pain quite a bit! Even the pushing for 45 minutes did not seem that much of an ordeal.
The End of Zuleha’s Labour: Here’s looking at you, baby!
I remember feeling this enormous sense of relief as Sameer was born into the world. Hearing his first cry was simply amazing. I now understand why women cry after delivering a baby. It’s relief as much as it is happiness and elation!
Image source: iStock
Stepping Forward
Although my labor took a whooping 26 hours, I am not disappointed with how things went. It just showed me what I could take and what I could not. Would I have been happy had things gone better? Sure I would, but I got out of this experience what I wanted, a healthy baby. No-one said birth was easy but no matter what you go through, the prize at the end makes it all worthwhile.
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