Growing up, we have heard of so many birth stories. With the current technology and social media, we were even given the chance to watch birthing videos that people share on youtube and what not. Having just gone through an experience myself, my conclusion is no birth story is ever the same and you can barely imagine how a birth takes place until you experience one.
From the scare of C-section (caesarian), macerated still birth, double charges when a normal delivery fails to the long hours of labor. Yes, I've heard and witnessed it all. My sister was told that it is impossible for her to deliver normally because the baby is too big to pass through her pelvic opening. My sister in law experienced macerated stillbirth and lost her baby who was almost due. I've a friend who had to pay double procedure fees because towards the end, her baby was in distress (emergency c-sect was required). My cousin experienced a very long labor hours.
Then, I was also introduced to the wonders to hypnobirth. My husband's bestfriend's wife who is much smaller than me (the bestfriend is bigger than my husband fyi) was able to deliver her baby normally via the method. So, I thought, hey, so normal delivery is not impossible for me. Also, I watched a video of my 2nd cousin (daughter of my mom's cousin) gave birth in the water which made both my husband and I more interested in the Mongan's Hypnobirth Method. Some people kept asking things like, "what? Is it like hypnotizing yourself? That's easy right? Just zikir your pain away". Well, it is far more than that. The hypnobirth method teaches us what we need to do during the pregnancy period for an optimum birth. For example, several exercises were taught in order to ensure that the baby is engaged in a proper position where the head is facing down. If the baby were to face upwards, it will be difficult for the baby to come out. Why? Because the back of the head is smaller and the skull was structured in such away so that it can overlap and adjust in size to pass the birth canal. A massage method was introduced to help with the pelvic opening (so really, there is no such thing as the pelvic opening being too small for a person to deliver normally).
However, there was also drawbacks when a person goes for hypnobirth class. We were asked to delay our trip to the hospital as long as possible to prevent intervention. Intervention in what way? Intervention like the popping/bursting of the waterbag. The waterbag will normally pop by itself. Most often, the doctors will pop it in order to make the labor faster. Drawback is, if your dillation does not reach 10cm within 24 hours, you will need to go for c-sect. That is the rule. So, if you are labor, my advice would be to not let anyone pop your water bag. Induce labor is another famous term that is used. They kept saying about how we need to induce labor but we were not told of the additional pain that comes along with it. Induce labor only gives a person strong surges but does not guarantee dilation. The ideology of hypnobirth most of the time opposes medical birth. Some doctors does not agree to it. So, to avoid complications, those who took the class were asked to delay their trip to the hospital. However, we were not that certain on that case. For us, it is better to be safe than sorry. So, what we did instead was to do a little more research on medical birth and chose the best of both worlds (which ever is applicable in our case).
For preparation, we did the exercises which was introduced by the Hypnobirth. At 37weeks, Lil Chica was already engaged in the correct and optimal position. It was just a matter of time for Lil Chica will be ready to come out. A little reminder I would like to share is that there is no such thing as babies being overdue nor will the baby straight away come out when they are engaged. Especially for the first baby, they can be engaged for about 2-4 weeks and still not come out. Your pregnancy age is only an estimated age that the doctor picked based on the last day of your period. Some babies cook faster than others, some take a longer time to bake. At 38 weeks, I was already getting very anxious especially with the unbearable itch that comes along with my sudden rash attack. I took about 45 minutes walk in the mornings hoping that it will induce labor naturally. That was until I fell sick. After that, there's really nothing much I can do.
On the 6th of September, at about 4.50am, I witnessed the bloody show. Both Hubster and I were excited as the bloody show means that labor is about to start. I've been having this itch to go to Pavilion and go to Juicy Couture store there just to shop check out for more baby juicy stuff for my little princess. We called our Hypnobirth instructor to ask roughly how long till labor actually starts. She said that it can start that evening or it can even go for days. Since I was so keen to go to Pavilion, I made my mom take me there without telling her about the show. So, there I was in Pavilion all happy only to find out that Juicy Couture is no longer there. Sigh! But I didn't put my effort to waste. Bought a piece of Little Marc Jacobs outfit which was on sale. During lunch, I told my mom about the show. Sigh! I should have waited a little longer because she was then rushing me home. There goes my chance to check out that pair of shoes at Stuart Weitzman. I was still not getting any contractions but my mom rushed us to the hospital. We arrived there only to be sent back home. We were told to only come when the pain was unbearable.
That evening I started getting cramps but they were very little and the time difference was very far apart. We ended up in Bangsar Shopping Center having dinner at Monte's. Last fling before confinement they say. LOL! So the scallops that night was like extra yummylicious! Haha!!! However, I don't really have much to say for later that night as I was starting to get cramps and my rashes was suddenly having a major reaction that I called my husband back from futsal while he was half way through his session. The cramps was actually tolerable but not the itch. I soaked the affected areas with dettol and hot water. Once the water starts to cool down, I then soak my foot in ice water. That was pretty much how itchy it was.
You would think that I would just head straight to the hospital but I didn't. Instead, that morning, I asked Hubster to get me Che Nah's Nasi Lemak Taman Tun. The Nasi Lemak was sold out so I asked for Nasi Dagang. I could still have a complete meal that morning which only meant that it was only an early stage of labor. However, there were quite a number of pauses in between as I waited for the cramps to go off. I then walked up and down the stairs feeling even more anxious. I kept asking myself how to make the baby come out sooner. I even googled for reflexology to induce labour naturally sites for guides. My mom called my cousin to ask more about labour (she's a doctor). I was told that contractions is like the cramps that you feel throughout your entire belly. Thing was, I could only feel the cramps at my lower abdomen. Thinking that it wasn't contractions, I was convinced that it wasn't going to come anytime soon. It wasn't till the cramps start to get even more intense and at an interval (although irregular). Urm.. I don't think this is just a normal cramp. So, at 1.30am, I woke Hubster up and told him that I wanted to go to the hospital. We told my mom who then wanted to follow us along. I asked my husband to take his time as I was still in doubt on whether I could still withstand the pain.
We arrived at the hospital at almost 3am. At that time, I was already 4cm dilated. Kindly note that hypnobirth does not encourage vaginal examination. We decided to go along with it so that we know how far and long the labor is. We made it very clear that we do not want the water bag to be popped. We were then told that my cramps were actually contractions. Shortly after that, my contractions advanced to 2 minutes interval and back pain starts to kick in. I was in my super bossy mode instructing Hubster to massage my pelvic bone to ease the pain and for the opening to be easier. At 6.40ish, my water broke. At that point, my back pain was becoming unbearable and I felt like poo-ing. That only meant that the baby's head is trying to make it's way through. I started crapping a lot like I mentioned in my earlier post. My back felt as if it was breaking into pieces. I remembered Zarith Sofia sharing her birth story where she breathed her baby out for 5 hours in the water. And I thought, 5 hours of bone crushing pain?!!! I looked at my husband and said to him,"Screw hypnobirth! I'm pushing the baby out!". Oh I must also add that me being such a demanding drama queen, I made a nurse stay after her working hours because I was very pleased with her and was scared of the other nurse who was a little rough in my point of view. But really, all the nurses there were very helpful. At about 7.30am, the doctor arrived and labor went on for about an hour. One thing about not taking epidural or pethidine is that you can practically feel everything. When the head came out, I was like, "OMG! Is it really that big?". At 8.37am, ta-daa!!! Say hello to Lil Chica!
We named her Zara Aliya after googling online for the characteristics and meaning of the name. A noble princess who radiants as bright as/since dawn and keeps on ascending. A name for a leader who is an achiever and strong willed. We want her to be the kind of person who doesn't give up easily especially when life holds a lot of challenges. It is important to know that it doesn't matter how many times we fall but what matters is that we never give up and keep on picking ourselves up. True enough, she came into this world just when the early morning sun is up and at it's bright. We then got our 1 hour (actually it was almost 2 hours) of skin to skin time with our little bundle of joy. Lil Chica was very calm when her Babah Adzan and Iqamah at her ears. He also recited Al-Qadr and Al-Ikhlas prayers at her ears. Almost 2 hours later only Hubster cut her cord. We delayed the cord cutting to ensure that all the goodness was absorbed before we cut it out. Cord banking? Nah! That wasn't an option for us. Sure, they store the stemcells but there's really no guarantee that the stemcells will actually work in time of need. All these stuff we learned at our Hypnobirth class. Alhamdulillah, our little princess is a very healthy baby. Fair skinned but will turn as red as tomato whenever she cries. LOL! I guess she takes that from me.
A combination of both medical and hypnobirthing method were used to bring our little bundle of joy to this world. Of course, faith in God was always with us throughout the journey. Both Hubster and I would like to thank everyone for your warm wishes, visits and presents. We are still adjusting to our new roles as parents and pray that our little princess will be blessed with lots of love.
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