It’s been awhile since I’m writing on my blog. I’ve been writing on my journal a lot, just not on my blog. But it’s mostly on my pregnancy. I guess, it’s about time I shall write about my labour story before this mind forgets.
It was Eid Adha, Pan and I started the morning early, to go to my grandma’s house. A little back story. I haven’t been in Selangor since April. We decided to give birth in Melaka, and since I was working from home since then, and Pan had to be in Pengerang for work once a while, it’s best to just stay at my parents’.
Covid cases in Selangor have gotten so much worse, that I didn’t feel safe in that state. So Melaka it is.
Back to my labour story. It’s Eid Adha, my grandma’s house was kinda occupied. My aunt had just given birth to her third child, Aisyah. Because it's Eid, Tok Mak had been cooking a lot for us. I was happily eating rendang and all. I got excited meeting my newborn cousin, Aisyah and listening to my aunt’s labour story. She had to go through c-section because her baby was in breech position. My cousin, Kak Mira also had delivered her son two weeks prior. The three of us were only 1 week apart each and I was the last woman standing (pregnant). I knew my time was almost up, but labour is something that will catch you by surprise, lol.
I was surprisingly active that week. I didn’t feel much pain, I’ve been having a lot of energy to clean up and to finish up my work. It’s like the body was preparing myself for labour but it’s two more weeks till my estimated delivery date. I was only 37 weeks 6 days that day. It’s in the nature of a pregnant woman to keep going to the toilet as the baby thought her mother’s kidney is her squeezed toy, so as Rachel would say. I saw brownish discharge on my panties. I wasn’t sure it was normal, or it’s a bloody show. So I asked my mom to confirm that for me. Yeap, it’s the bloody show, so I just had to make my way to the hospital.
Before heading to the hospital, I went home to shower and change, preparing for the big day. Took some photos, of my last moments being pregnant.
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| Last pregnancy OOTD |
We reached Mahkota Medical Center and headed to the emergency department. They didn’t have much staff on standby at labour department because it’s public holiday and because I didn’t take Covid-19 swab test yet, the staff needed to be in full PPE to check on me.
I needed to head to one of the wards, alone, and I should wait for the midwife to check for my dilation. She also did CTG scan on me to check in my contraction. Contraction was present but I I was only 1 cm dilated. She called my OBGYN, Dr Azlina telling her my whole situation and because the baby’s head wasn’t still engaged and this is my first born, they suspected my labour will still be a while.
We went back home, empty handed lol.
That night, I did all the pregnancy exercises to induce labour naturally and my bloody show had gotten worse.
The next day, Dr Azlina requested for me to meet her. She scanned the baby and recorded the baby’s movement, gave me the whole recording in a CD. She said, that’s the last pregnancy scan before we met the baby. I was only 2cm dilated, even with all that blood.
The doctor explained to us there’s a possibility that normal delivery wouldn’t be an option for me because it’s been 24 hours and I still hadn’t dilated as much. It's also because of the baby's weight and my height. It's a condition called Cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD), a pregnancy complication in which there is a size mismatch between the mother's pelvis and the baby' head. The baby's head is proportionally too large or the mother's pelvis is too small to easily allow the baby to fit through the pelvic opening. So, she gave us time to decide whether to go for normal delivery or c-section. She didn’t want to medically induce me because I would be in so much pain. It would be worse if I were to be in pain but still not dilated. I had to go through another CTG scan and take swab test. I told Pan I wanna walk like a lot, take the stairs just to help with the dilation, before making our mind later in the evening.
Alhamdulillah, our Covid test turned out negative, and the CTG scan showed that my contraction was getting more frequent. But I still had not dilated more than 2cm. It’s been more than 24 hours, we decided to just go on with C-section as we didn’t wanna take the risk of stressing the baby. So, my c-section was scheduled at 10am the next morning and I’d have to be warded that night.
For my c-section, it’s covered by my company, thank God. We had to go through all the procedures before getting warded and I requested for single room but it wasn’t available for the night, so we had to co-share the room with another person. Thank God, Pan could accompany me through the night. It was a bit uncomfortable that night as the aircond was too cold and the blanket was too thin and I didn’t have my pregnancy pillow with me. Pan had to sleep on a lazy chair that the hospital provided, with no blanket. But he got my scarf to the rescue haha. I had to start fasting from 2am, to prepare for the operation. That night was the last night before we’re becoming parents.
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| my jersey scarf for the rescue |
I woke up at 6am, took a shower and I was looking at myself in the mirror, looking at my belly thinking I’d finally get to see this child I’m carrying for 9 months. My pregnancy journey such a beautiful one even with so many challenges along the way. Maybe that part is for later, I have that all in my journal that I’ve written for my baby to read when she grows up.
I had mixed feelings that morning, because c-section was definitely something I didn’t prepare for. Mentally and physically. I just read about it, how to take care of the wound, the recovering days, what to eat, what not to eat, what to do, what not to do the night at the ward. But for my baby’s safety, I had to go through this, regardless. I prayed so hard it’d be okay. That there wouldn’t be any complications. That the baby would be alright. That I would be fine. Most importantly, the baby.
The nurses had to do all the procedures before pushing me to the OT, had to sign couple of forms and I was pretty sad Pan couldn’t be there in the OT. All because of Covid. While waiting for the OT to be ready, I had to receive the spinal anaesthesia, but the anaesthesiologist was a bit occupied, delaying my operation by 2 hours. I had no phone with me and the bed they placed me on at the staging side of OT was really uncomfortable. Later, I had a kind nurse, asking if I was okay. I just told her I wasn’t comfortable, she helped lifted up the head of the bed, making me feeling much better.
I had the whole nurse team that was in charge of my operation around me, talking about my company’s insurance and life basically just to buy time. The kind nurse helped me dialling in Pan, just to ensure he knew I was okay and operation hadn’t started yet.
It’s 1150 and they finally pushed me to the operation theatre and what happened in there was quick. The anaesthesiologist gave me the spinal anaesthesia, the effect was immediate. I couldn’t feel my legs, my OBGYN arrived and I was cut opened.
1218, the baby was out, I heard the baby crying and gosh, I cried so much like alhamdulillah the baby’s alive, super grateful and the paediatric showed me the baby, it’s a girl! I got to kiss her and they took her away from me. They had to sew me lol.
That lasted for an hour. And I could feel the pain while they stitched me up and I remembered screaming in pain. That got everyone shocked, and it’s because I got some acid something going on. Probably acid reflux while they’re ‘rearranging’ my organs. After it’s all done, they had to put me somewhere to monitor the side effects I’d experience. The sleep I got that time and the sleep after that was probably the best deep sleep I got ever since lol.
At 2-ish pm, they pushed me back to my ward and on my way I saw my mom, Ina and Pan. I could just wave at them. Back in my ward, I needed to continue fasting till 6-ish. Pan took my baby to me, he recited Iqamat and Yassin to her and just like that, we’re a family of three.
Special thanks to Mahkota Medical Centre team - Dr Azlina, Dr Tee Ah Cheng, all nurses and staff who were involved in the whole antenatal and labour process. And to the nurse who ensured we got transferred to a single room soon after my operation, as per our request, thank you! Single room was so much better, we got to control the aircond temperature, Pan had the whole couch for him and my family helped sending clothes and my pregnancy pillow and Pan took ownership on the pillow hahaha!
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| MMC Single Room |
It’s quite a journey, my labour experience. Do I wish it to be different, going through normal delivery instead? I don’t think so. I don’t even know if I could handle the normal delivery pain, although c-section recovery is a pain.
This is my labour journey, it’s been 46 days since that day. 46 days of sleepless nights but definitely 46 days of happiness.
46 days of Iryss. our little bundle of joy :)
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