Since receiving a lot of messages asking me tons of questions about my labor experiences I decided to finally write a blog post about it all. Hope you guys enjoy it!
I was never really scared or nervous about pregnancy (ok maybe a little) my main concern throughout the 9 months I was pregnant was giving birth. I’ve heard so many horror stories about labor that the mere thought about having Olive scared the shit out of me. Everyday as my due date approached closer and closer I started getting major anxiety, I was thinking about the pain, If I was gonna bleed too much, if Olive would be okay and finally what if I died? You see I’m an over thinker and I have anxiety which tripled since becoming pregnant, so my mind was constantly racing. I’m so use to hospitals in the USA that I felt so unprepared to give birth here in the Philippines since things are totally different here.
June 22th
I was headed to my weekly OBGYN check up to see how things were progressing since I was 38 weeks and 1 day pregnant and was thinking at this point I was probably going to go past my July 5th due date because I felt no contractions or pain. this thought scared me not only because I was super uncomfortable already but also because my OB would be out of town and the thought of someone else delivering my baby gave me more anxiety. My OB was the one that prescribed the medicine which helped us get pregnant and she’s been with us ever since and has been extremely helpful along the way, she really understood my anxiety and worry and never judged me for it, she was also really openminded when it came to the way I wanted things which was rare to find here. So back to that day, I was getting my cervix checked to see if I was dilated and getting what’s called a membrane sweep ( google it haha). When she was checking me she and I were both surprised to find out that I was already almost 5cm dilated, She asked me again if I was in pain or having contractions but I wasn’t, she told me I needed to go to Labor and Delivery Unit to get checked. I was sort of freaking out because a ton of things weren’t ready for Olive’s arrival. Dennis and I quickly went to labor and delivery and we were there for almost two hours getting checked, turns out I was technically in labor but not active labor and that I was okay to go home but should go back if I had any signs of labor. We quickly went home and started finishing all of the last minute things for Oli and I of course started goggling 5cm dilated info and found out some people stay dilated for days and even weeks. I thought had at least another week. I was wrong.
June 25th
I woke up like any other day, tired and uncomfortable but I noticed a wet spot on the bed, I thought I just pee’d a little since that happens during pregnancy sometimes (don’t act like it hasn’t happened to you). So I got up and got ready when I got out of the shower I sat down and notice another wet spot when I stood up I knew for sure this wasn’t pee and I told Dennis that we should go to Labor and Delivery because I might be leaking amniotic fluid, luckily all our bags were packed and we were ready. On the short car ride there (we live very close to the hospital) I think we were both thinking that it was another false alarm since I had a couple already before, when we got to L&D I met with the usual doctors and nurses there, I’m sure they were thinking ‘This crazy girl is in here again’ but after giving me a check up they said that I indeed had a tear in my amniotic sac and I would need to stay in for monitoring and guess what, I was gonna give birth that day.
One thing I hate about Cebu is the way the whole giving birth process is here, this was one of the reasons why I really didn’t want to give birth here. They take you to a room with a bunch of other pregnant girls who are about to give birth, we each have a bed and about 3-5 nurses and doctors checking in on us and but we don’t have any privacy, like at ALL! No walls, no cellphones allowed and most importantly no significant others allowed, Dennis had to get a paper signed by the hospital administrator before he was allowed to even watch the birth, he wasn’t allowed with me while I was having contractions or anything.
Back to my story, I was admitted and was super nervous and scared because I was alone. I walked in to the room with a bunch of other girls and one was ready to give birth, she was yelling at the top of her lungs and screaming in pain and all I was thinking was ‘ That’s not going to be me’ little did I know…
I had zero contractions but I was 5cm dilated and there was tear in my amniotic sack meaning there was now a risk of me having an infection so I was told I needed to take medicine to speed up labor. This is something I’ve been saying (since even before I was pregnant) that I did not want to do, I wanted an all natural drug free birth but since my contractions weren’t getting any closer and I had the tear, I had no choice, I knew we had to get Oli out as soon as possible. Imagine someone telling you that you had to go a totally different route then you originally planned and once again I was alone.
They started me on Pitocin to induce labor at first I didn’t really feel anything in terms of contractions getting painful, I thought man this labor is gonna go by quickly. Well it wasn’t I was there for hours and every 30 mins I had someone doing a cervix check to see how far I was along, which is painful! They had to increase my dosage when I wasn’t progressing as fast as they would of liked, after increasing my dosage I started to feel the contractions coming on and damn did they hurt, I was in so much pain and they asked if I wanted pain relief, they said it was more of a drowsy medicine that would let me rest in between contractions, I declined and tried to handle the pain. I wish Dennis was next to me to help me but instead I had some male nurse telling me to breathe which as you know pisses you off because he’s a guy and he will never understand the pain haha. I finally gave in and decided to take the pain medicine ( forgot the name) I totally wish I didn’t. They gave it intravenously and the stuff worked within 5 seconds, made me feel super drowsy and I remember I kept asking the nurses if I was suppose to feel this way haha they were probably super annoyed with me because I asked a million times. Every time they told me it was normal I would say “I don’t think I’m suppose to feel like this, I feel weird” haha, lets not forget I was in a room with like 6 other girls who were probably scared just like me. That medicine was a complete waste because I still was in pain but now I was tired and In pain. When my doctor arrived I was happy to see a familiar face. She checked me out and told me it would be soon, not long after my doctor arrived she sat on the bed with me, we were talking and my water broke! I was gushing water and my doctor said “Are you ready to push?” And I knew it was time!
First thing I said when I knew it was time was “Please get my husband!” I must of said it like 20 times that they finally went to get him. I was wheeled in the delivery room and I got so scared. It looked so scary to me, all this equipment and seriously like 15 people, none of which were Dennis, I was super afraid that I was going to give birth and he would miss it so I yelled “Where is my husband?!” They said that he was changing into scrubs and as soon as I saw him I had so much relief, It was 6 hrs of me in labor alone with no way to communicate with him I knew he was worried and nervous. He immediately grabbed my hand and told me it would be ok. I started pushing and daaaammmn the pain was so bad that I almost passed out I had a cheer squad of doctors, nurses and Dennis telling me to push but I was in so much pain I couldn’t. I asked my doctor if it was too late for an epidural and she said yes and that I could do it I was already 10cm dilated, I tried for alittle while longer and I think I even yelled to her to give me a C-section haha, she finally got the anaesthesiologist to give me an epidural and man oh man I should of got one in the beginning because my pain was completely gone within minutes. I swore I would never get it but I’m so glad I did!
After the epidural it was back to pushing, I even had a male doctor pushing on my stomach which was actually pretty painful, it was hours of pushing and still Oli wasn’t coming but then finally she started to crown, everyone was shouting at me to PUSH PUSH and I felt her head come out, then her arms then she was here! I immediately started crying, they gave me Oli right away and she just laid on me. I knew in that moment my whole world was going to change. I looked over at Dennis and after they made sure she was okay they handed her to Dennis, the look in his eyes was so beautiful, you could tell he was already in love.
And that is how our adventure with Olive Adeliz Bersales begins…
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