Someone had mentioned to me before that for every subsequent pregnancy, expect the hours of labor to be reduced by half. No kidding! It took me six hours to give birth to our eldest Elise, and so it was no surprise to me when at 38 weeks, I gave birth to our secondborn Elmira in only three hours. The hubby and I had planned to watch back-to-back episodes of Suits that Saturday night and we had barely gotten started when I felt as if the baby literally kicked my V from the inside. Before I could make a comment about it, I felt a gush of water and knew it had broken. The good thing about Riyadh is the lack of Manila-like traffic. We were in Sanad Hospital in just around 30 minutes even though the hospital is located about 15 kilometers away from our house. Even though I have done this before, I feel like nothing could really prepare me for the curveballs thrown at me during delivery. First, I expected that my regular OB, a Filipina, would be the one to deliver our baby. As it turns out, things work differently around here. You don't text your regular OB and tell her you're on your way to the hospital where you two would simply meet. In our case, we went straight to the hospital ER where I was prepped for delivery and when it was time, the on-call OB delivered the baby. I learned later on that you can make a private arrangement with your regular OB, but it required shelling out an additional SAR2,000 (Around PHP20K+++)---which we found too steep. It can be a bit disconcerting to have an OB whom you've never met before and have no rapport with deliver your baby. During my first pregnancy, we consulted with many OB's until we found someone we really liked. But what's one got to do but to make it work? My OB was Syrian, looked a bit young, and likable enough although she gave me tough love. When I wasn't pushing right, she taunted me that she would just send me home since "I didn't want to give birth to the baby". I knew she was just encouraging me to push better, but I wanted to tell her, "Hey! Cant' you see I'm in pain here???". Thankfully, the patient records of Sanad are centralized so that gave me some bit of comfort, that my Syrian OB can just pull up my records and check my consultation history, lab results, etc., to get acquainted with my case should there be any complications. I was also thrown off by the fact that although there are plenty of FIlipina nurses in Sanad, the main nurses who assisted me were not kababayans. Although they were friendly, I had some difficulty in both conveying my messages and understanding their instructions because of their foreign accents. It was also kind of awkward to relay my pains in English, like: "Please help me!" "I can't do it anymore!" "Ouch! It's so painful!" I felt so conyo, hahaha! The biggest curveball and definitely not part of my birth plan was giving birth without any medication - as in I gave birth naturally! Given my generally positive experience when I gave birth to Elise, I was set on also asking for epidural this time around. I know some women choose to forego the epidural for an organic labor experience, but I already knew my intolerance to pain and know myself well enough to ask for an epidural. Just an hour after admission, my OB told me my dilation had already progressed from 5 to 8cm very quickly that she could no longer administer epidural. When she told me I have to give birth naturally, I felt like I was a contestant in Fear Factor. I started to panic and told my OB, "NO! NO! I CAN'T DO IT!!!". To which my OB replied, "Yes, yes, you have to!". I felt so defeated, but at the same time, I felt so grown up, too, like I was confronted with fear, and I have no choice but to take it head-on. (I realize that for someone in labor, I was doing a lot of overthinking, haha.) In between the most painful contractions, I thought about all the movies I've seen where the pregnant women deliver their babies in the most unusual places like the car, or even in their house, and wonder how they can do it without the benefit of epidural or anesthesia to help ease the pain. Well, I was about to find out! To cut the long story short, I gave birth to our secondborn, in exactly three hours, without the assistance of medication, and without my husband by my side who was not allowed inside. I know it might not sound like a big deal to some, but I consider this experience a kind of a personal achievement. Read: My other articles about mommyhood and our diplomatic life here in Riyadh: What to Expect When Expecting in Saudi House-Hunting in Riyadh: Fantasies and Realities The Start of our Diplomatic Journey
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |