At Will's Will

On 11 September, I went for her usual Tuesdays antenatal appointment. That was the last one before the plan to admit myself to hospital on Wednesday night. At the appointment, Miss Wilson did a sweep to check the condition of my cervix. Apparently the cervix was quite soft already.

As I got into the car at 1pm to go home, my water broke. That was most unexpected, I thought I had wet herself but it was too much water!! So I drove the car from the pay and display parking on the road behind the hospital into the hospital car park and went back into the Maternity unit. Water was just flowing out as I walked through the car park and into the hospital. What a messy trail I left behind!! My trousers were wet through and through. Luckily the water was generally colourless and odourless.

Now I was not allowed to leave the hospital. I waited around in wet clothes while they sort out some gowns and a bed, and for my mom and aunt to come with her hospital bag. But, nothing else happened for the rest of the day.

After dinner and all visitors had left, at around 10pm, I started to feel some pain. I wasn't sure if they were contractions, but it got more frequent and by 11.30pm, it was more acute and more frequent. The midwife did a sweep and said that I was 3 cms dilated and need to be admitted to the labour ward. I called my mom and aunt to let them know.

In the labour ward I was assigned a midwife. She had to run around getting things ready, such as drips. I needed an glucose/insulin drip to control the blood sugar, and an saline drip (ready for the epidural). While all that was being done, I was in terrible pain from the contactions, and my mom and aunt did not turn up until 3.30am, right after the epidural took effect! Hmmmppphhhh!

It's difficult to describe what a contraction pain feels like. Not like any other pain I've felt. Some say it's like a period pain but I never had a period pain ever so I cannot say. It's like short sharp spasms. Painful but I survived so it can't be that bad!

It was a good thing that they managed to use epidural as I found that the Tens machine and gas and air didn't help. In fact the gas and air made me throw up!! The epidural really helped, though it was a light one which meant I could still use my legs and feel the "painless" contraction, but can't go to the toilet... had to use a catheter!!

At about 4am, I was fully dialated, and at about 5.15am, the midwife asked me to push with each contraction. I was pushing for almost 1 hour, while they monitored Baby's heartbeat with CTG machine. However after 1 hour, they felt that the baby might be in distress as the heartbeats were a bit slower when there was no contractions. Therefore Dr. Tom Brooker suggested that they use the ventouse to help pull Baby out.

While they were preparing the equipment, I continued to push and then Baby decided to come out without any help! So in the end, after all the planning, William arrived without drugs or instruments!!!