I woke up on the morning of April 14th and when I got out of bed there was a gush.
I thought to myself “I can’t even make it to the bathroom anymore”, but I felt different. I went and told my Mum and she said “the baby is getting ready to be born. The contractions will start soon.”
I always knew my child (my son, Jamie) would be born on April 15th. I was never told it would be that day, I just knew it would be. Not the 14th.
An hour or so later I started to get cramps (contractions — but I didn’t know that’s what they were). They weren’t too bad, but they were happening off and on. I didn’t know what it meant. Again I told my Mum and she decided it was time I went to the hospital.
Short story, we headed off to the hospital.
I was admitted and checked and told it would be some time before my son was born. I remember walking, walking as much as I could between the pain.
I didn’t understand what was happening to me. I did know my son was going to be born, but I didn’t know what, if any, role I played in it other than to just let it happen. No one ever told me what would happen or what to expect.
As the hours went on the pain became more intense. I no longer wanted to walk. I wanted to just rest in bed. The contractions were so strong in my back — more so than my tummy.
At one point the nurse said to me “oh you should be pushing” and I said to her “I should?’. She explained how and I said I would. So I started pushing.
The pain continued to get worse and I continued to push. Finally the doctor arrived and there was a lot of fussing around me and hushed sounds.
I remember my Mum and the doctor walking out of my room and into the hall.
This part I will never forget…
Though they spoke quietly, I heard my doctor say “God I hate this part”. My Mum “What’s wrong?”. My doctor “We may need to do an emergency caesarean and if we do your daughter would likely die, or her baby would die, and possibly both”.
He mumbled more to her and then I heard my Mum say “You save my daughter”.
They both came back to my bedside and proceeded to tell me that the pushing I was doing had created swelling in my cervix, a block, so the baby could not move and was pushing against the swelling. I told them that the nurse told me to push, even though I did not know why I should be pushing — (later I learned that you don’t push until your body tells you to — how naive was I huh).
The doctor told me they would try an epidural, but if that did not work an emergency caesarean would have to be done and either I would die, or my son would die, and possibly both of us.
I told them to save my son, even if it meant I would die, save my son.
There was so much activity around me and I was in so much pain. I remember being moved to my side and a something put in my back. They then moved me so I was lying on my back and within seconds I had another contraction and I sat straight up. I remember looking at the nurse as she yelled “NO” and looked like she was going to faint. I didn’t understand why then. I learned later I could have ended up paralyzed just by sitting up.
I was almost half way through 24 hours of labor.
