I just got off the phone talking to a friend who recently gave birth. She was telling me all about her horrible hospital experience and her first-time-mom-woes. I can’t help but remember my same experience some two years back.

I never shared a birthing story even if it was a custom in one of my egroups to write one and post it in the board. Aside from the obvious reason of having my hands full tending to a newborn that time, it could also be that I didn’t really want to recall how I gave birth because it wasn’t really pleasant or as trouble-free and relaxed as others. For a while, I didn’t even want to give birth again, LOL.

It wasn’t the hospital’s fault though (I gave birth at St. Luke’s by the way) and nor am I blaming my OB pero in a way feeling ko she could really have done a better job. Part of it could be my fault too since I wasn’t really prepared. I was too lazy to attend Lamaze classes so we weren’t eligible to use the Lamaze Room or have Jon stay inside the delivery room with me.

I was induced on my 38th week because my OB was leaving for the US. I was induced March 11 at 9 am. Hours after, I was 1cm and it took forever before I reached 2 to 3 cm. By 4pm, I was only at 4cm but after 30 minutes my water bag broke. All these time, my OB wasn’t in the hospital yet. She was some place else but was from time to time on the phone talking to the resident doctor who was on duty. (I don’t know though if she was informed that my water bag broke already at 4:30pm). After my water bag broke, my contractions were still painless. I was still chatting with some interns but after an hour, I started feeling painful contractions already. Still bearable though. If most mommies hated getting IE’s, I wasn’t one of them because I insisted on having one. I was so paranoid that I was even the one asking the resident doctor to perform an IE on me. The last IE they did showed that I was 4 to 5cm still. This was an hour after my water bag broke. But everything just happened so fast after. In a span of probably 30 minutes to an hour, I was crying of pain in the labor room. As I try to recall now, all I could remember was the painful contractions I was having and how I was crying so hard and asking the interns and doctors if my OB was on the way. Mind you, my anesthesiologist was still nowhere in sight too. I didn’t have any form of anesthesia more so, an epidural. Hay naku, I thought I was going to die na, really. The interns and the resident doctor looked worried too since when the resident doctor performed an IE, I heard her say “almost full na” with a worried look. Still, my OB and “her” anesthesiologist were still nowhere in sight. I overheard someone saying “Dra. 8cm na, fully dilated na”. I swear, it was so painful and worst, I was in panic already and was terrified to death. And when I say I was screaming, I really was, no exaggeration or whatsoever.

Finally, my anesthesiologist arrived. I saw him running and he was literally catching his breath when he said “Asan na?” In a matter of minutes, I was transferred to the delivery room and finally was given epidural. Oh, what a relief. I clearly remember my anesthesiologist telling me that I needed to relax, everything’s going to be fine, my OB arrived already (dapat lang diba???), that the traffic was so heavy and so on. I didn’t really care anymore. I was just so thankful they arrived just in time.

My consolation naman is I didn’t have a hard time pushing. I probably just had 3 to 4 pushes and Sophia was out. They did however performed fundal pressure on my abdomen that I had bruises the next day.