17-hours-episode of the labour.

Salam,

Yesterday I promised to share the experience that I had when I delivered my third baby. I hope I can finish typing the whole story in this entry today even though I'm feeling a little bit sleepy due to the lack of sleep last night. Well...the normal expected routine of a newborn still can't tell the difference between day and night also has happened to Husna.

As I shared before, the water broke by 8 p.m. My MIL & FIL sent me to UMDC (PPUM) as soon as they finished praying. My MIL brought me to the Labour Room on LEVEL 3 but she was not allowed to accompany me inside. So, she had to wait outside for about 2 hours before she found out that I couldn't deliver the baby yet and had to be kept in the ante-natal ward for observation until I could feel the regular and intense contractions. By 11 p.m., my MIL came to the ante-natal ward and I asked her to go back first as I didn't think that I would deliver any sooner. She asked me to call her the next day and told her about the doctor's decision for the next day.

Throughout the night, I tried to get as much sleep as I could. However it was quite impossible since I felt the contractions every 10-20 minutes. The irregular contractions and also the regular check-up from the nurses in the ward made me so uncomfortable and restless. Each hour and each time I had the contractions, I prayed hard to let it be the real contractions. I kept praying and saying "Allahu" as my abah thought me and sometimes I said the other prayers as well. By 7 a.m., the MO on duty came and decided that I had waited too long before the delivery. He was afraid that the baby might be infected if we just waited. Thus, I had to be induced and he told the nurses to send me to the labour room in Level 3 after I had some breakfast. I ate some bread and drank a little bit of Milo in order to give some strength because the doctor warned that it was going to be long before I could eat another meal after that.

In the labor room, they prepared the room and some nurses, medical students and doctors came in the room at the different time. I was placed in labour room 8. There were about 15 labor rooms with some HDU (high dependent unit) rooms for the caesarean cases. One medical student tried to poke a needle on my left hand but then she decided to change to my right hand when she saw a recent needle wound. She failed during the first trial maybe because she was so nervous. Another doctor came and taught her how to do it properly. Some other nurses came to put on the CTG and also to measure my BP. They also checked my temperature to make sure that I didn't have any fever.

By 9.30 a.m. they started to induce me by inserting the medication through the needle. I could still talked and answered a lot of questions from the medical student and also few other doctors who kept coming in and out of the room. Every time they came, they asked almost the same questions especially regarding my previous delivery history. Most of them were amazed with the fact that I delivered my second child through breech but still normal delivery in New Zealand. All I could say was it happened so fast and one foot was already out and the doctor had no choice but to ask me pushing the baby.

The contractions started to be regular after 10.30 a.m. How did I know the time? There was a clock in front of me and I kept checking on the time as I couldn't do anything else apart from waiting and answering the non-stop questions. The medical student sometimes became so annoying when she kept writing something in her notebook every time I gave her some answers. There were times I couldn't and actually refused to answer as I was already in labour pain. By 11 a.m., they asked if I would like to be given a pain killer to ease my pain. I refused it few times before but at last I agreed as I couldn't bear it anymore. The pain from the induced process was far intense than the natural contractions I experienced before. They injected "Pethidine" at the back and warned me that I would feel sleepy but it wouldn't harm the baby.

I indeed felt so sleepy especially the last few minutes before I was asked to push the baby. I couldn't really open my eyes and it was like in a dream. I heard the doctor who was in-charged asked me not to fall asleep. I asked the medical student to give me her hand as I was so used to hold my hubby's hand before. She lent me her hand and I squeezed her right hand so hard. I didn't shout but I used the oxygen mask from time to time when I couldn't breath well. The medical student thought me how to breath properly when I forgot to take the long breath. When I could feel the baby was coming out, I tried very hard to push and kept pushing until I heard the doctor said, "very good", "keep pushing kak", "just a little bit more".

Alhamdulillah the 17-hours-episode ended by 12.04 p.m. They showed me my baby and asked me to announced the gender. I could see it was a baby girl and all I could think was "Alhamdulillah it was over".

Here is another photo of Husna and we are so glad to have her in our family. The elder sisters are also happy to have a new sibling.