It was about 6am when we called the ambulance. I was in the bathroom, hitting the transition phase every few minutes. I didn’t know what to do, I was not ready for this situation. No position helped me to deal with the painful sensation that controlled my body. Even the water didn’t help. I was on the floor in our bathroom, roaring like an injured tiger. I wanted to push so bad but I knew that I can‘t. Also, I was getting scared that I will give birth alone in the bathroom.
Speaking of labor sounds, during contractions I was just moaning, but when the transition came and I reached the pushy phase my sound changed completely. My husband described it as an animalistic sound and said that even though it was crazy it also looked very natural.
I forgot to mention that at the time of my labor we still lived with roommates. At the very moment, I didn‘t give a damn about anyone hearing my scream. Later, when we got home from the hospital, my roommate told me that she didn‘t know whether she should check on us or no. I guess that after what she heard she might consider not having kids at all. 😂. While she heard everything, her boyfriend sleep through it all.
So, I’m in the bathroom losing my mind, my husband is running between bathroom and bedroom, trying to finish packing and trying to calm me down a little bit. I was there just for a few minutes however it felt like years.
“They’re here babe!” Once I heard him saying that I calmed down instantly. He had to lock down our dog in the office room because she was freaking out from what was happening.
Then I asked him to bring me some comfy clothes because at that point I was still naked. He grabbed a big blue dashiki shirt I got when we started living together. I’ve never worn it before because it was too big. Later I realized how stylish it was to give birth in a dashiki.
The paramedics came upstairs and put me on some weird chair so they could carry me downstairs. I didn’t want to sit on it but they made me. It was excruciating because on the way downstairs I had two big contractions and I wanted to move so bad.
I roared all over the place and our dog was barking upstairs crazily. Drama like from a movie haha. And of course, my water was leaking all over the place... 😂
It was Thursday, June 25th, around 6:30 in the morning and it was a national holiday in Taiwan - Dragon Boat Festival. Our neighborhood is like a small community where people know each other and help each other. And if you’re a foreigner they definitely know you, especially when you’re a pregnant foreigner. Most of the people living around us were home because of the holidays and when they spotted two emergency cars in front of our apartment building, some of them came out to see what is happening. Also, everyone must have heard me screaming.
The paramedics laid me down on the gurney that was outside of the house, I was wearing only the dashiki so most of my neighbors have seen my naked white butt. :D They got me inside the car, my husband hopped in with all the luggage and we headed to the hospital.
I remember that the guy in the car wanted me to lay on my back but I couldn’t. He had to check me while I was laying on my side. He also hooked me to an IV. The ride that normally takes about 20 to 30 minutes seemed to be neverending. My husband was talking to me the whole time, he had this big smile on his face telling me that the baby is going to be here soon. He was telling me jokes but I didn‘t laugh. Every time I had a contraction I roared and I was biting my hand. Later I found blue bite marks on my wrist.
At some point, I told my husband that I need the drugs because I can‘t do it. Not knowing that the whole thing will be over soon, I was worried that I have to deal with this for the next few hours. He was well trained, he knew that when I start asking for drugs it’s almost over and he has to talk me out of it. And that is exactly what he did.
The car arrived at the hospital, it was around 7am. They took me to the emergency room, left my husband outside. I was constantly asking for him but as I didn‘t spend much time there they didn‘t let him in.
The female doctor checked me, said something in Chinese and everyone started rushing and moving me somewhere else. I got scared and I was telling myself that I don’t want to have surgery. Nobody told me anything and I didn't see my husband.
Later I got to know that they were taking me from one building to another because it was a time to go to the delivery room. The delivery and maternity ward are in a different building than the emergency.
As they rushed me through the corridor that connects the hospital buildings, I saw my husband running behind the gurney with all the baggage. It looked like he’s about to catch a plane.
We got to the delivery room, it was very bright and white over there. Everything looked clean and modern. They put me on the delivery bed and started prepping me up. Another female doctor introduced herself to me. When I asked her what is happening, she said that the baby will be here in about 20 minutes and that I can't push yet. I couldn't believe her, I was not ready to meet our baby.
I suffered through a few more contractions, my body wanted me to push but my cervix was not ready yet.
Before the doctor allowed me to push, I told her that I don’t want an episiotomy or any other interventions without my consent. She was OK with that. I was surprised by how conscious I was in the delivery room. I spoke for myself and I controlled the situation from the moment she told me to push.
If I remember well I tried to push about two times and then my husband came into the room. He had to get into the scrubs before they allowed him to enter.
He stood up next to me, on my right side, ready to cheer me up. He also called our midwife, I had no idea when he did it. She was actually on the way out of the town when she received his call. She turned back and she was coming to the hospital.
I started pushing, I continued my roaring and I felt that my face is getting red every time I did so. I was also surprised at how vocal I was.
Everyone in the room was cheering me and telling me that I am doing great but I didn't really mind them. I was in my zone and being present at the same time. I asked the doctor to count for me when each contraction started. It actually didn‘t bother me or didn’t distract my focus from pushing. It actually helped a lot!
During the pushing, I was telling myself that I can do it, that the pain is not that bad and I can push through it! And that’s exactly what I did! 😊
I don’t think that I pushed for too long before my midwife came. Immediately after she entered the room she moved the bed from the reclined position to the sitting position. That was a major breakthrough! The gravity did its part! She also started cheering me up, she held my head and she was saying all the positive affirmations that really helped. The whole pushing stage might have lasted about 20 minutes. During that time, my husband was informing me about what is happening “down there” and giving me water to drink. All the roaring made me so thirsty!
The head was out and they told me not to push anymore, and I didn‘t, my body did. I felt the slimy little body coming out of mine followed by the gush of water. I wish I could see it from my husband's perspective.
They put the baby right on my belly. As I saw this tiny little human with a very hairy head laying on me I was shocked. I just kept repeating “Oh my God!” all over again.
The funny moment was that the baby was out but nobody told me whether it is a boy or a girl. As my husband was getting ready to cut the umbilical cord, I screamed at him “Babe, what is it?”, he just casually turned over and said, “It’s a girl!”. For the next few minutes, I just kept saying “Omg! It is a girl!" 😂🤩I just couldn't believe it.
The little baby girl was on my belly, her cord was already cut. We were just watching her in disbelief. She was so tiny and covered in vernix. She didn‘t cry, she was just there, quiet and calm.
At 7:35 on June 25th, we became parents! ❤️
The doctor and her assistants started cleaning me up and get me ready for stitching. Before they stitched me up, they massaged my belly to helped the placenta to come out and prevent the hemorrhage. It was incredibly painful, more painful than the whole pushing part. Even though I tried to focus on my baby it didn’t help. After the placenta came out, they showed it to us and examined it. They also paste in on the blank paper and gave us adorable placenta print.
I had some small internal tears, nothing serious but it had to be stitched. The stitching was also very painful.
Around that time my OBGYN came in. He entered the room saying “I guess you’re not coming for the prenatal check-up tomorrow right?”. I was just smiling. Honestly, I was happy that he was not there the whole time. He was an OK doctor for the check-ups but I was worried about him being present while I'm laboring and delivering the baby. As the head of the department, he was a traditional doctor, and not every time he agreed with things we wished for.
Cleaned and fixed up I was moved to the recovery room where I’d wait for a room at the maternity ward. We were all together the whole time, snuggled under the blanket. We video called my mom. I let my brother know that we’re in labor before we left the house. He woke up my mom (it was in the middle of the night back home) and they waited impatiently for some news. She was very surprised when we called her, and it was a precious moment when she could see her first grandchild right after birth. 😍
The doctors were checking up on us once in a while and around 11am they came to tell us that they have to take the baby for some routine exams. Later, they also told us that my Group B strep test, which I’ve been examined for during my last prenatal checkup, came up positive. Usually, when the mother is positive, they give her an antibiotics shot or IV with antibiotics before the birth, so the baby would be protected from the bacteria. In my case, nobody knew that I was positive because they didn't have time to check my info. Also because of the precipitous labor, it’d be already late for any precautions.
So the plan was to keep the baby for observation and give her antibiotics for at least three days. Of course, we didn‘t want to risk anything so we agreed to it, under the condition that they will call us whenever she’s hungry or crying. We planned to room in with the baby in the hospital and we were kind of bumped that we couldn’t. However after all we had time to rest and to have the last few days for ourselves.
I’m normally a very emotional person. I was worried that the separation from my baby will be very hard for me. Surprisingly it wasn’t. We were going to see her every few hours and the fact that she didn’t cry while being in the neonatal ward made me calm. Seemed like nobody suffered.
On Sunday, June 28th, all the tests came out clear and we were ready to go home. Overall, we enjoyed the stay in the hospital. We clearly didn’t expect that. I will definitely come back to it and write something about hospital care in detail later.
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