Purposive without Foresight

My due time was Nov. 15th. On Nov. 25th, the family sent me to St. Bernward Krankenhaus for an “Einleitung” (I don’t know the term in English, but you may get an idea if read on).

At 7:00 am a midwife in the hospital applied a kind of gel on the opening of my womb. The effect of the gel was said to cause the contraction of the womb. Then they monitored me and the baby with CTG for an hour. Nothing really happened. The baby was healthy and vital as ever, there were 4 or 5 peak TOCO values of 120, but I did not feel any pain in my belly during the whole hour. The midwife set me free from the CTG wiring and said I could enjoy the rest of the day freely, please go to the delivery room for another CTG monitoring again at 14:45. I walked in the hospital with Dirk or my mother one round after another, nothing really happened. During the rest of the day, I had numerous CTG sessions, everything was as normal, just no pain in my belly. Dirk said he had a feeling that the baby wanted to come out on Friday, Nov. 27th. At about 19:00 I asked a midwife during a CTG session, whether she could give me another contraction-gel. She said I had walked a lot that day, if the delivery really set off after the second gel, I would not have enough energy. She scheduled another CTG session for the late night and let me go. In my last CTG session on Nov. 25th, a midwife asked me to visit the delivery room again at 7:00 am the next day, and they will apply another gel on me.

For unknown reason I did not really fell asleep in the hospital during the night. Belly was heavy and turning in a strange bed was difficult. At around 5:00 am I went to the toilet and found something red, still two hours before the schedule, but I went to the delivery room anyway. There are five delivery rooms in the hospital. When I entered the section, I heard babies’ crying from different delivery rooms. I told a midwife my finding and she took me to room No. 2 and put the CTG wires on me, then she left my room in a hurry. Well, the TOCO diagram showed finally there was some regulary contraction, once every 10 minutes or so, to a peek value of 50. I did feel some pain. But it was totally endurable. The day before, a midwife would come to me and check the diagrams once every 15 minutes or so, but this time, they left me alone in Room 2 for more than 1.5 hours. Women were screaming in the other rooms, I knew all of the midwives were busy where some “real thing” was happening, so I did not press the call button until 6:50 am, just 10 minutes before my official schedule. Then came a midwife in a hurry and gave me another gel. I thought, ah well, after another one-hour monitoring, finally I could get out of this hard bed and have my breakfast. I was very hungry and thirsty then. My last dinner was just a very light salad.

Just five minutes after the second gel, waves of indescribable huge pain started to attack me. I was out of breath all of a sudden. I wished I could scream but was too weak. I took a look at the TOCO diagram, oh my god, the value now kept at 100-120, it happened in five minutes after the gel! I wanted to press the call button but it slipped away from my bed when the midwife came. I was totally alone in the delivery room, unable to scream when pain attacked. I thought I was dying.

Calling with a cell phone was verboten in the delivery room. But my cell phone was the only thing I could reach from the bed. I called home and said to Dirk, come to the delivery room 2 immediately!!! Before I could finish speaking a complete sentence, another huge wave of pain came and I could only “ah… ah… ah…” in a very weak tone. Dirk and my mother jumped out of home.

I would really die if I could not drink any water. At a valley of a TOCO diagram, I finally shouted out “Help! Can someone please bring me a water?” Now came a midwife and I got a cup of icy water. She then checked the CTG diagrams and the opening of my womb, and told me it was about 2 cm wide, she could offer me a PDA if I wished. Actually, I had heard that for some women, the pain of the contraction during the delivery was quite endurable. My mother also told me to be a brave mama, try to deliver the baby without PDA. But at that moment, I lost any strength of rejecting PDA and said to the midwife “Oh yes PDA please, the sooner, the better!!!” At about 7:50 am, shortly before the anesthetist’s arrival, Dirk and mama came to me. I grabbed Dirk’s hand and pressed it hard when the pain came, my mama made a lot of blah blah in my ears, mainly were commands about not to shout loudly so that I could reserve energy. Suddenly I felt much securer.

After a while came the anesthetist and his assistant. The assistant looked at my face and started to state all the bad things that a PDA could cause. I had no patience for that and said quite rudely: “Yes I have read all about that before. I confirm that I’d like to take all the risks. Give me a PDA NOW!!!” She then asked me to sign my name on a document and the anesthetist started his work. I could feel that they pierced something into my back, the pain of the piercing was like a breeze compared to the pain happening in my belly. A few minutes after the anesthetist’s job done, the pain in my belly was totally gone. I said to the people in my room, I felt like in heaven. The anesthetist’s assistant asked me several questions such as whether there were any funny feeling in my head, stomach, legs, etc. No, typical PDA complication did not attack me in any way. I was the lucky one, it seems. But another unexpected thing happened.

There was huge pain in my right groin when there was a peak in the TOCO diagram. I asked the anesthetist what was the matter. He said very likely the baby was pressing my right groin and it just touched certain nerve there, PDA could not help in this case. This pain was my biggest problem until the baby was born.

Soon came the midwife and asked how I felt after the PDA injection. After knowing there was no complication, she said I could take a nap in the delivery bed or walk around in the delivery room. I tried both, due to the pain in the groin, I could do either, but only hold Dirk’s hand tightly when the pain attacked. After a short while the midwife checked the opening of my womb again. In less than 1.5 hours after the PDA was given, my womb opened to its maximum. The midwife was preparing a lot of things in my delivery room in a hurry. She said, my baby was soon to come. It was about 10:30 am.

After several minutes, I felt like going to toilet. The midwife said, no that was not the toilet thing, my baby was coming out! I should press my belly as hard as I could when the contraction came. When the contraction came, the baby was pressing harder and harder in my groin, it was not endurable. Within several minutes, I sweated so much that I feel like lying in a small stream. I cried out and shouted “I do not want my right leg any more, cut it off please !!!” All people in the delivery room tried their best to calm me down and encourage me. The midwife picked up another midwife and they started to press my belly really hard. After about ten hard tries at contraction, the baby finally came out. There was very loud cry from my baby in the delivery room. Both Dirk and my mother were in tears. It was 10:59 am, Nov. 26th, 2009.

People were busy washing and testing my baby in the delivery room, my mother was watching them. Dirk stayed at my side and held my hand all the time. It was a big baby, weighed 4170 g, 54 cm long, and his head circumference was 37 cm. Obviously I lost much blood during the delivery. My blood pressure was 70/40 when I was carried out of the delivery room, and I fell off on the ground when tried to walk to another bed myself. My mother was really scared.

New adventure with my son Kai Philip Farin now started.

Tags: family, life