On Delivering My First Baby

It's my first week in obstetrics. *Vahjayjay overload!* But seriously, the labour ward wasn't all that bad. It was practically the temporary transient pain before a whole new world evolve. When the whole new world started, whatever pain that came before totally disappeared for the day. And I dare say so because I'm still trying to recover from the 24 hour calls followed by tutorials, so my whole afternoon was spent in the bed; wasn't even bothered to go for dinner. But I'm totally elated. Know why? LOL

It was pretty exciting when we first report to the ward that all the beds in the labor ward was fully occupied, meaning lots of deliveries. So when we went in after lunch, we saw deliveries continuously, like 5 to 6 at one go. Mum shouted in pain. House officers and medical officers were encouraging the delivering mothers. Some nurses joined in; while one in particular shouted at the mommy for stopping giving up. "Ma, push long long. Cannot like this! Pushhhhhh! Pushhhhhhhhhhh!" One particular scene saw one of the senior nurse scolded the mommy for not putting in any effort because the fetal head remained in the pelvis and the labor wasn't progressing.

"Mummy, PUSH! Strain harder!"

Mommy got really annoyed and screamed.

"DON'T SCREAM! PUSH WITH YOUR LOWER BODY, NOT YOUR THROAT!"

"I AM PUSHING!"

"NOT HARD ENOUGH!"

Drama really~

But after what seemed like the busiest period in the ward, as how the houseman told us, the deliveries finally slowed down about mid night. My colleagues were already involved, one of them delivered the placenta, while the other finally got to touch the new born and lifted him up to show the mommy.

So, as the call was coming to an end, and me have yet to get involved in any deliveries, I started to sulk. I walked around like a zombie without any facial expression. And when I don't have any facial expression, I gave people the impression that I'm not happy with somebody. Well, indeed I was irritated by some of the staff's remark, and I know it was not right of me to sulk, but well, I've got sensitive feelings and I get irritated even with the tone of a person's speech. So yeah, I'm sorry.

On the 2nd last hour of the call, I walked into a bed where one of the medical officers on-call was checking on the fetal heart rate. First pregnancy, first delivery. Not going to be an easy one. 2 hours to the end of my calls, I wasn't really putting much hope in conducting any more deliveries. But since the doctor asked me to monitor the fetal heart rate for her, and to call her when there was any distress, I did. Mommy was already in labor, and trying so hard to stand the contraction pain. Fetal head was already in the pelvic cavity, but not low enough to actively encourage the mother to strain. So we would just wait until it was visible via the vagina.

After some 1 hour of walking out into the aisle and coming back in to check on the heart rate, we finally saw the mother straining. Colleague and I lifted the clothes to see the fetal head visible! Panicking, I went out to get one of the doctors to be present before we conduct any deliveries. But the doctors were all busy, 2 reviewing other high-risk patients, while another one was doing some suturing. When I went back to the mommy, my colleague asked me to prep up; baby was already coming out!

At that moment, even putting on the sterile glove was hard. It wasn't helping when you heard mommy started to strain.

Luckily one of the senior nurses came in. "You want to conduct?"

"Yes!" I finally braved myself. It was time, after having observed nearly 15 deliveries in the past 23 hours.

So with one hand supporting the perineum, and the other arms holding the thighs back, the other fingers preparing to guide the delivery of the baby; I finally saw myself encouraging the a delivering mother.

"More mommy, more. Good good! A little more. Pushhhh yess... Keep it long. Good mommy, good! Yesss pusshh!"

After 2 rounds of encouraging, with a really bad tear, baby's head finally out!

The palm supporting the base of the head and seeing it turning, we get the mommy to strain one last time, to deliver the shoulders, and *Hallelujah*! Clamped the cord, and cut.

Staff nurse helped with the suction, baby chocked and started crying. At that instance, there was this sudden gush of joy, somewhat a really heavy burden being relieved. Baby's alive. *Amen!*

It was only then that the doctors came in, and saw the staff nurse guiding me in delivering the placenta. "Delivery's smooth? Great, congratulations!"

But I felt sorry for the mommy. She's got a really bad tear, a big one indeed, just 5 cm from the anus. Houseman came in to inspect, and took over the repair. I on the other hand, rounded up my work by inspecting the placenta, and got ready for class.

I couldn't have felt any more thankful for this first delivery experience; thankful for the opportunity; thankful for the chance to know this mommy; thankful that the mommy, despite first delivery, handled it bravely; and thankful that the staff nurse was so ever patient in guiding me; and I sincerely wish that the baby will grow into a young fine man in the future.

My first deliver. Whoa! 2nd of September 2010, 0700. Post-call lethargy doesn't seem intimidating anymore.

Welcome to the world, baby...