The Birth Process

For Ken Lin:
I remember I started pre-maternity on 23 Aug(Mon) and went for my check up at 9 am on 26 Aug 2004 (Thursday), the day of EDD. Dr Lai said that the baby would probably arrive that evening or night and told me to go home and rest. The contractions was detected to be 8 min apart then. But I couldn't feel any pain at all! Decided to go for a walk at nearby Tanglin Mall and was having lunch at Delifrance when I felt really tired. Took a cab home and laid in bed resting and started to feel weird. The contractions became really bad at 2 pm and decided to call my husband to fetch me to the hospital. At about 3pm, we arrived at the hospital and was pushed to the delivery suite. I took the gas and about 4+ pm, Dr Lai came to see me and said I could go for epi if i wanted. I decided to bear with the pain as I was afraid of paralysis, though the risk was very low. At about 6pm, he came again. The baby was detected to be in op position. In other words, he was head down but facing up. When I knew about it, I kind of panicked and requested for pethidine and it was about 6.20 pm when the midwife administered the jab. However, I already felt the urge to push. Dr Lai counted to 10 while I was told not to arch my back and to close my mouth and channel my energy to pushing the baby. The baby's head could be seen but it went in again and I tried a few times and by 7.05pm, the baby was out! Was sewn up by around 7.45pm. Bled quite a bit and the midwife asked me to keep massaging my uterus to stop the bleeding. Was around 9pm when I was pushed to room 638.

For Kee Yen:
I felt the urge to go to the washroom at about 5+ am on the 15 May 2007(Tuesday), went about 3 times in total, I guess. As time progresses, I felt the contractions become more intense and started timing; quickly got my husband to send my boy to childcare and called the gynae at about 8am who advised I go to the hospital. Contractions was about 4-5 min then. We quickly made our way to Gleneagles via Dunearn Road and the road along Botanical Gardens. Was raining that morning and was already past 9am when we arrived at the hospital entrance. Kinhock ran down the car shouting 'my wife is in labour!' It was so comical that I started laughing! I was quickly pushed to the delivery ward and I was told to urine and change into the hospital gown. That morning was a busy time for the nurses and it was only about 10+ am the fili midwife came and she checked me down there a few times and broke my waterbag! From then, the contractions came fast and furious and I was hoping for my gynae to come quickly or he wouldn't be able to be on time for the baby's arrival! I guess it was around 11.15am or so that he finally came and he started to ask me to push and said that I was doing fine... I could feel the pain below there and couldn't stop shouting this time! There wasn't episiotomy done on me this time and I guess the tearing was painful. I could even feel the stitching more painful than the first experience! However, the baby came out within 5 pushes. The dr took quite a while to stitch me. Think he finished around 12+pm. I was under observation to check if I had bled excessively given the first-time experience. Luckily, I was better this time round. About 1.30pm, I was pushed to room 507.