A Little More To Life: My Birth Story

Hello! My name is Ethan ;)

And this is my Birth Story...

12 Nov
8:00pm - Week 39 AMK clinic scan, shows baby is still not engaged and I’m not having any contractions. Scheduled to have induction on 14 Nov 10:30am

13 Nov
9:00am - Regular contractions 5 mins apart (feels like bad menstrual cramps), called up Dr Benjamin Tham and he asked us to proceed immediately to the delivery suite for checkup. Ask Doc whether can go in the late afternoon cause hate to be strapped for a long time to the CTG machine, he say dun dilly dally lar... come and scan if alright will send you home

11:30am - Strapped on CTG scan at KKH monitoring room, contractions every 4-5mins. 1.5cm dilated. Was asked whether I want to go home and come back when the pain is more intense since they usually admit patients who are 3cm or more dilated. I said "OK!" without a second thought.

14 Nov
8:00am - Having painful contractions whole night, couldn't sleep much. Arrived at KKH earlier than scheduled, hoping to get some pain relief. Strapped on CTG scan to determine whether induction still required

9:45am - 3cm dilated, induction not required since having strong, regular contractions, was sent to the ward to wait for more dilation

1:00pm - Pain becomes unbearable, request to be admitted to delivery suite for epidural

3:10pm – Epidural injected, no pain thereafter

3:32pm – Break water bag, bed flooded

5:10pm – 5cm dilated

7:18pm – 8cm dilated

8:20pm – 10cm dilated, baby’s head engaged at +1 station. Epidural left ¼ tube and dosage was reduced to ½ to let me feel the urge to push

8:50pm – Asked to start pushing

9:10pm – Labour not progressing and contractions stopped. Further reduce epidural dosage and put on Oxytocin drip to increase contraction frequency and strength

9:20pm – Ran out of epidural, pain becomes excruciating. Cry non-stop and screamed like nobody’s business when the contractions reached it’s peak. Begged for epidural top-up, entonox or anything that can reduce the pain but none was given.

10:50pm – Pain seems never ending, unable to take any instructions from anyone, requested for Caesarean. Doc say to try one last time to see whether natural delivery is possible. Commented that afterall baby is big and I’m a small girl.

11:00pm – Doc finally agreed to give me a small dose of Pethidine, which managed to reduce 30% of the pain almost instantly.

11:05pm – Baby Ethan’s head emerged with the help of a vacuum and another doctor giving a few hard painful presses on the tummy

11:08pm – Baby Ethan officially came to this world!