The Birth

Ah! The wonders of epidural!

All geared up to push.








To follow up on my pre-baby blog about the "elective" nature of my scheduled natural birth (an elective natural birth - what an oxymoron), I am happy to report that my birth experience was FANTASTIC. Elective it was, the birth was very natural and I got my much desired epidural - which made my postpartum recovery much much much smoother. This experience changed my mind on two things I used to believe:

1) Epidural slows down dilation (not true, it actually sped mine up)
2) Episiotomy is bad for you (not true, I got one this time and my wound healed much faster than my natural 3rd degree tear with Luke's birth)

I don't think I will buy that all natural (meaning no intervention at all) crap ever again. Epidural is the redemptive grace for all daugthers of eve! :)

Here's a run-down of my day of delivery (June 11, 2008)

8:30am Arrived at Mount Alvernia Hospital with Matt. Checked in to delivery room. 1cm dilated.
9:00am Dr. Loh (my OB) arrived and did vaginal exam. Scheduled prostaglandin primer (to soften cervix so that it will dialte) at 9:30. Matt and I settled oursleves in the room - dimmed lights, turned on music and got our reading out (I got my Emma and Matt got his Jack Aubrey -Far side of the World)
9:30am Nurse Linda administered prostaglandin. Waiting for contractions to start.
9:45am Started feeling some mild contraction cramps. Entered early labor phase.
10:00am Entered active labor phase. contractions every 1 minute apart and getting more intense. Matt and I started walking around but half way through it was too much that I limped back to the delivery room to get down to all fours on my bed.
10:30am Contractions 45 seconds apart and each lasted 45 seconds. Really intense and could not talk through contractions anymore. We asked the nurse for a vaginal exam, and all that pain got me only to 2cm dilated.
11:00am Asked for vaginal exam again. Still remaining at 2cm. Contractions every 30 seconds apart, but we decided to wait a bit more before asking for epidural.
11:20am Another vaginal exam. Still at 2cm. I would want to wait but had a feeling that if I wait any longer, I'd end up not being able to get an epidural (Dr. has warned me how fast things can progress for second birth. Some people can go from 3cm to 8cm in no time). So I asked the nurse to call in my anesthesiologist.
12 noon Dr. Png (anesthesiolgist) arrived. I had him for a surgery before and he's great. Vaginal exam. still 2cm. Dr. Png prepared for injection.
12:20pm Epidural injection completed.
12:30pm Feeling much better already. Dr. Png gave me the perfect dose. I could feel the contractions but no pain at all.
12:30 - 1:30pm Matt and I chilling out in delivery room, chatting and reading our books. Then Matt went to cafeteria to grab lunch. (I can't eat because of the epidural)
1:30pm Dr. Loh visited again. Cervix dilated to 4cm. He assured us that baby would be born latest by late afternoon. He also asked me to take the cues of my body and inform nurse immediately if I feel any urge to push.
1:45pm All of a sudden felt the urge to push. Talked to Matt, but since I was only 4cm dilated 15min ago, he said we better wait a bit.
2:00pm Felt stronger urge to push. Called nurse to do vaginal exam - and I was 9cm dilated. Nurse said I'm ready to give birth and called Dr. Loh.
2:20pm Dr. Loh and nurses arrived. Ready for the pushing! Since my epidural was just right, I felt every contraction (without the pain) and was able to push effectively.
2:40pm Dr. Loh suggested an episiotomy. I wasn't sure, but Matt was at the other end and saw that Dr. Loh tried his best to stretch me out, but still need a bit more room for baby to come out without risking a big tear like I had with Luke. We decided to go for it, and Dr. Loh assured us that it's only going to be small cut and will heal nicely.
2:49pm After about 30 minutes of pushing, Madison Leigh was born!
3:00pm Delivery of placenta. Injection of Vitamin K of Madison. Nurse cleaned Madison.
3:02pm Daddy got to hold Madison for the first time.
3:15pm Dr. Loh finished stitching up the wound. I got to hold Madison the first time and started breasfeeding. Dr. Loh all done, said his congrats and left. We got to stay in the room till 4pm to rest and have a little quiet family moment before moving into recovery room.

Labor took a total of 5 hours from active phase to delivery. The relative ease and quickness of delivery left me quite energized and I felt that I bounced back much faster this time. As Dr. Loh has promised, my wound healed fairly quickly. All the swelling was down and the wound was healed by my 1 week post-partum check up. In fact, it stopped hurting after 4 days. Matt only had to rock me for 2 hours during active labor so he came up with little damage and pretty good spirits (unlike the first time which he was utterly worn out after enduring 7 hours of active labor). The hospital service is much better in Asia than it is in the states, too. In Michigan, the nurse expected me to do everything by myself after 12 hours of labor, including diapering and getting my own snack and water at the pantry! Here, the nurses MADE me rest. They took good care of Madison at the nursery, bathed her, diapered her, and wheeled her in for breastfeeding. They also came often to check on my water supply and if I was awake, asked if I needed a snack. Lactation consultant stopped by and took time to teach me how to massage my breasts and express milk. Also taught all kinds of techniques of how to alleviate a clogged duct and engorgement. I was really impressed by their level of service and patience to equip the new mother (though biologically I wasn't one...). I wish this was the case for my first delivery so I would have had an easier time as a first-time mother.