Labour Stories: Trying For Six Years!

Sally Chew, 26, tried for six long years before she got pregnant. This is her miraculous labour story.

I was extremely excited when I found out that I was pregnant. My hubby, Gabriel, and I had been waiting such a long time for this. We had tied the knot when I was barely 20, and started trying for a family six years ago. We even underwent fertility treatments, but to no avail. It seemed like the odds were stacked against me. Just when I was giving up hope on ever conceiving, we found out that I had a bun in the oven!

Besides the fact that I was swollen like the nutty professor, the nine months progressed very blissfully, no morning sickness, no backaches, no bloatedness. I guess that I am one of the lucky few, but my labour was horrifyingly painful!

As I was four days past my due date, my doctor decided that it was best to induce me. First he inserted a pill in my vagina so as to soften the cervix, and then he burst my water bag. While it sounds kind of scary, it's actually painless. I was also given a drip to get the hormones moving as I took about 15 hours to get from being 1 cm to 5 cm!I never imagined it would take that long!

No Pain Relief Needed

For the next seven hours, I started getting regular contractions every 15 minutes. Finally after 22 hours of labour my cervix was fully dilated (10 cm) and I was experiencing contractions every two minutes. Each contraction left me depleted, and I couldn't catch my breath between them. The pain was terrible and I was questioning whether opting for no pain relief was a smart choice!

In the last hour, the pushing, waiting and overall pain got really bad. I felt disoriented, irritable, withdrawn and fed up. I even announced to my DH that I’ve changed my mind about having a baby and want to go home! I was so relieved when my baby's head finally emerged! I have never experienced so much pain in my life. I felt like I was ripping in half!

After my angel was born, the gynae clamped and cut his umbilical cord and put him in my arms. Then he asked me to push one last time to get the placenta out. I was so thankful that it was all over. There were moments where I never thought the labour would be over! Seeing my baby for the first time all I could think was that he was tiny and so perfect I couldn't believe three hours earlier he'd been curled up inside me.

Editors Note

Most labors begin naturally sometime between 39 and 41 weeks of pregnancy. A labour is "induced" when it is started by artificial means(medical intervention). Labour can also be induced if your labour started spontaneously but the contractions aren't considered effective enough to bring you into full labour.

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