Chronicles of Childbirth

   A couple of hours after I wrote about my dream, there came another ordeal that scared me out of my mind. I brought myself to withstand another day at school, we had obstetrics and I was busy lamenting why as a dentist I had to take that course. Then our Lecturer came in and told us we had to watch a woman give birth, I was like ‘hmm that sounds great’. No it wasn’t. Yes, having a child is beautiful but the whole process wow…..Some good Eve did by eating that forbidden fruit!!! Birth is something people seem to fear. There is this pervasive notion out there that it's somehow disgusting and bloody and that everyone is in horrific pain. Well, that’s totally true at least I was in pain and I wasn’t even the one giving birth neither was I related to her. This is the chronicles of childbirth from my own very eyes 0_0

    We matched to the delivery rooms in our matching scrubs, masks and caps. There was no doubt that we were all eager to see something different other than the teeth. Usually we were more than three but today was different and two students had travelled home. When we got there we saw the woman sitting on a Flexible Yoga ball with her hand squeezed tight.

‘She is in Pain’ my colleague whispered to me. Obviously I thought to myself.

‘How on earth are we supposed to take the case history of a woman having labor pains?’ I asked my Colleagues. Just so you know that is the practical part of our class and we couldn’t afford to fail it or retake the class.

‘Cam-my, can you ask her the case history questions? You are the lady, she would respond more to you’ one of the guys in my group said. On a usual day I would smile at his wrong pronunciation of my name but I wasn’t just in the mood for that, It was enough that I had Dysmenorrhea and couldn’t think straight now he’s asking me to bell the cat with a woman in pain, just because I’m a woman too!!

Shaking my head I said ‘Do I look like I have an idea what labor pain feels like?’ After much grumblings we realized that we just couldn’t do it because the woman was sending us evil glances across the room. We pleaded with our Lecturer and got another patient for the case history, but she strictly told us we still had to  watch the delivery.

After we were done with our case history we went back to the delivery room to wait for the appointed time.  I watched a contraction came over her I could sense its intensity.  The woman  was almost unable to focus on breathing and relaxing , the contraction went away  after a few seconds and a minute later another extremely intense contraction happened only this one was accompanied by another "pop!" as well as water gushing out. She stood up groaning the Nurses came in and told her to lie down gently but she strongly resisted the Nurses pull. ‘How strong a woman can be when in labor? ‘I thought.

 The midwives started disassembling the maternity bed.  She finally lied down on her back and the baby's head was already presenting and she was moaning.  At first I thought the midwives at this point had become very insensitive and uncompassionate, the truth is they were doing their jobs.

She was ordered to "Be quiet!!"

'She could hear them just fine and didn't need to be yelled at' I thought again.

 Then the younger nurse yelled at her "I want you to pant! You have to pant! Just pant!!" but it was too late she was already bearing down by that point and was just unable to stop, her body had taken control and  she was just along for the ride! The older midwife was holding the baby’s head in so he didn't crown too fast and cause a tear. With the next contraction his head came out. She pushed again but the rest of his body didn't come out like it was supposed to so in the next push they pulled him out. It wasn't hard to see why he was stuck, he had massive shoulders!  Then she was giving an injection to pull out the placenta. After the whole ordeal, the placental too was delivered. It turned out she needed two stitches just in the entrance and probably from her baby boys shoulders having to be pulled.

‘This is going to be hard for her’ I murmured.  She was already screaming even before my thought was fully formed. 

  Soon it was all over. I watched how she carried her baby and suddenly she went from pain to joy. Hmm…what a world!

  After I had been stitched I went to the hallway, while standing there the younger midwife said “Я сподіваюся, що трапилося, не зруйнувати ваші пологи досвід” (I hope what happened didn't ruin your birthing experience). It was like she was reading my mind; I was now contemplating whether I really wanted to have children. My pain threshold is so low. I know how it feels when I have menstrual pain; it’s like burning in hot oil now the thought of going through childbirth is so scary. I kept asking myself if watching this delivery has tainted my birthing experience. I always thought contractions feel like menstrual cramps but instead they look exactly like this:

LABOR PAINS= MENSTRUAL CRAMPS X 100

Not to be sexist but common every Man needs to give thumbs up for every Mother who has passed through these painful times in their life.