Editor’s Note: 40 weeks of pregnancy is enough to get a woman feeling completely fatigued and exhausted. But that is not where it ends. Then comes labour and with it the immense pain. A pain that only a woman can bear. Our member SaleemaRex tells us her story about when she went into labour. Share your story with us here.
I thought I will share my experience here in the hope that someone will find it useful. For my older daughter I was naive and went with what was advised by others rather than making my own decisions about what I wanted. So in the end felt everything was totally out of my control. Of course when it comes to c-section things are not definitely not in our control but for natural birth I think we do have some control over it. We can be informed about how we want to give birth, what type of pain medication we prefer, etc but without forgetting to keep an open mind when things don’t go according to plan.
So for the first baby, my pain started in the evening and was in regular frequency during late night so was given Morphine injection. It didn’t work well for me due to my personality. Even though I managed to give birth to a beautiful baby girl in the morning the whole experience was not something I wanted to repeat for a long while.
After 5 years it was time for the second child, this time I was well prepared. Went for pre-natal classes, read about pros and cons of different options, etc. I didn’t want to go for epidural for various reasons. Rather, I read about alternative pain reliefs.
This time pain started in the morning, went to hospital but was told that I hadn’t dilated much, so decided to walk around the hospital with my husband. I would stop and hold his hands whenever the pain hits and then continue the walk. This went on for few hours. Midwife had a look again later and said I have dilated more and labour would be soon.
At that point pain was more frequent and more intense, so went on to try birthing pool. Stayed in the water for some time (it did take the edge off the pain) but I didn’t want a water birth so got out and tried gas and air. Not sure how effective it is as a pain killer but it was a brilliant distraction. We had a good rhythm going, my husband would be looking at the monitor and when he knows the contraction is starting he would give me the gas and air to breathe. It was really a joint experience. Shortly afterwards my second princess arrived!
I really think knowledge with an open mind helps get through the one of the toughest challenge a woman faces – child birth.
Wish you all a positive birthing experience and a beautiful healthy baby/babies!
PS: Morphine works for many women so don’t discount it without reading more about it
