My Delivery Experience

Creating a Birth Plan

It's highly beneficial to create a Birth Plan with your partner and to discuss it with your physician. Around 36 weeks would be a good time to have these details finalized, so you can rest assured everyone knows what "the plan" is.

My hubby and I wrote my birthing plan out together, but our mistake was forgetting to talk it over with my doctor. On the day of delivery, I handed copies to the midwife who was to assist the birth, and to the nurses looking after me, but unfortunately my doctor didn't get a chance to read it. Although not much changed in terms of how I wanted the delivery to go, she almost cut the umbilical cord before my husband did, and that was something he really wanted to do. So... now I know for next time!

Our plan was fairly easy-going. Since I'd never had a baby before, it was all a first-time experience for us and we wanted to go into it with an open mind! There were a few specifics which, although my doctor did know, I felt I needed to have in writing...

We wanted a natural birth! A c-section was only to be given as a last resort or for an absolute emergency. As long as the baby & I were safe, we wanted things to happen naturally and for him to come out naturally! (Thankfully, he did)

I wanted the opportunity to "see how I felt" on the day. As I mentioned before I was going into it with an open mind and wanted to keep my options open! Especially with regards to pain relief (ie. medical relief, breathing techniques, walking, massage etc). I wasn't sure how I would feel or how much pain I could bare, so this sounded like a good plan!

A few non-negotiables were... I wanted my husband with me at all times, and as soon as our baby was born, I wanted to hold him straight away before the midwife did any checks. After the checks were complete, I wanted skin to skin contact and the chance to breastfeed immediately. My husband would accompany my son if he needed to have specialized care, otherwise my baby would remain with me at all times. I wanted to breastfeed exclusively, on a schedule, and I did not want the nurses to offer my baby anything (ie. bottle, sugar water etc). My husband was to sleep in my room, and a bed was to be provided for him. Those were the specifics!

Now for what really happened...

My son was born on his due date, Christmas Eve! Two days before, my mom went with me to the doctor for a routine visit. The scan showed there was less amniotic fluid than the week before and since I had gestational diabetes, the baby was at risk of getting too big! So, she suggested booking me in for an induction within the next week. Two nights later I hadn't felt the baby move for quite a few hours and decided to go to the hospital for a CTG where they did a recording of the baby's heart beat! The baby was fine, but it did pick up that I was starting to have contractions. (Thankfully I couldn't feel a thing!) So we went home and were told to come back for an induction first thing the next day!

At 8am, the following morning, we arrived at the American Hospital of Dubai. It was quite strange just strolling into the delivery room... I was feeling & looking great! Whilst hubby filled out some paper work, I changed into a hospital gown (my choice), made myself comfortable and ordered up some breakfast... could it get any better than this??? So far - so good!!! However, it wasn't all peaches and roses for long!

A few minutes later, my wonderful doctor arrived, and with the help of the midwife, broke my waters. I was expecting a GUSH but instead felt a warm trickle. A drip was inserted into my hand and the Oxytocin started to flow. Wow, talk about going from nothing to full blown contractions! They immediately began picking up and soon were 2-3 minutes apart. At first the pain was tolerable as my hubby did a great job of distracting me with his witty humour! But after a few hours I thought differently. (Apparently natural labour is often slower and more gradual than an induced labour, where everything happens at once!) I soon found out there wasn't the option for me to try various methods of pain relief (many common methods aren't available in Dubai). The anaesthetist had a tight schedule that day and if I wanted an epidural at all, I had to inform him right then! So I did! BUT, there were 3 other ladies who were all desperate to have epi's and so I had to wait... and wait... and wait... until finally the anaesthetist arrived! Never been so happy to see one before!

Whilst he performed the epidural I remember thinking... it's not that bad! I'd heard some horror stories before, but for me, it was a fairly pleasant experience, and it was over in less than a minute. I was pretty chilled about it! But for the best part, there are no words to describe the tingling sensation that suddenly works it's way down to your toes... perhaps - GLORIOUS!!! For the next 3 hours I went into a very calm and sleepy state! It was sensational! (The only side effect was occasional itchiness on my neck & chest - read up on it, it's one of many side effects, but fortunately was the only one I experienced.) And so I slept! I never read any of the magazines, or books I'd brought. Also never listened to music or played Sodoku! All I did was sleep (yes ladies, the joys of an epidural). Which was a good thing because I had no idea how tiring it would be pushing a baby out, and that one would use every muscle in one's body! I must say, that at this stage I thought all the hard work was over. I'd persevered through some painful hours of labour, and now it was all nice and pain-free! Ha!

At about 2pm, I was 10cm dilated! The midwife informed me it would soon be time to push. 20 minutes later my doctor arrived and so did "Delivery Time". This meant the pain-relief was lowered right down till basically I could feel everything again! And who would have thought there was more to pushing than just pushing?!? A few things that were going on in my mind were... what do you push, how do you push and when do you push???
Well... the good news is the 'when' can be instructed by your doctor... the bad news is the 'what' and 'how' are for you to figure out! At one stage I remember my doctor saying, "Shelley, you're just pushing with your face!" That just made me crack up laughing! But in all honesty, it felt like I was running a marathon. I had no idea how much strength and energy was required! At 3:22pm I gave a final push and my son was born! WOW, what a moment in history. Amongst the tears of both joy & pain, I held my baby for the first time.

Would I do it again?... Definitely!