Labour, Delivery & Pain Relief

Wed 11th Feb 09

Again i was the first one in. The Instructor was a first timer - excited yet inexperienced. So the "lecture" was a bit boring and took longer time to finish.

Today is the overview of the whole process.

So there are 3 stages of labour

1. First Stage - Contractions

2. Second Stage - Delivery of Baby

3. Third Stage - Delivery of Placenta

Early contractions, the instructor told us, would normally come by the hour for 10 - 20seconds. But as time passes, It will come in shorter and shorter gaps yet more intense. Something like every 5 min that lasts for 1min.

To cope with the pain, it is good for the spouse or birthing partner to know where to rub the aching body parts, to learn the breathing and relaxation exercises which is the topic for next week's lesson. I begged and begged and begged Zubair to come for just this one most imp topic and he said ok he will try to arrange. Let's hope he could really make it.


I heard gasps when the instructor clicked for the next slide on 2nd stage of delivery. I was wearing specs but still cldnt quite figure out what the picture is but i quickly trained my eye on the drawing instead of the REAL picture before i turn jelly all over!


This is the part when she said that we will have the room to ourselves in the delivery suite with a couch for the spouse to rest. She reminded the husbands to bring along sweaters because it will be very cold in there. While they provide blankets for the mummies, they cant give for the guys.


She also said to make sure the husbands have dinner if it seems to be a long haul. This is because the shops near KK close very early... but i think Z will have no problem walking to Lil India where its a 24hrs food haven as we usually do after check ups.


The other thing is really Guys dont hafta show ur machoness. If you think you can stand looking at the blood, please dont look. Because if you faint, and worse if u knock your head after seeing the goriness of it all, nobody has the time to attend to you until AFTER the team has settled mother and baby.


Lastly, Birthing partners please have some rest in between contractions or when the wife is dozing off. Dont act so gung-ho else you might be too tired you'd miss the actual delivery. This has ever happened before!!


A new thing i learnt is the position of the perenium. All this while i thought its a horizontal cut when it is actually vertical. Its the space between the V and the Anus. *shudder* The nurse actually described how the docs will decide to cut or not. Its when the area is stretch too thin it would become so white and like about to burst. so before it cracks, better to cut it clean. Jelliness!


The actual Labour - where u start pushing i think - should take only between 30min - 1.5hrs. Any longer, the gynae will hafta think of some kind of intervention. Forcep, Vacuum or c-Sect. Even after she explained, i can't imagine how this forcep thing works. Do i dare to research more by googling for its image? Maybe not. Vacuum ok its a lil cup on the head on the baby that they will pull slightly to tug/encourage it out with the next contraction.


Next she explained the Pain Relieves available at KK Hospital. There are 3: Pethidine, Gas, Epidural.


Pethidine is a drug that they will jab at the thigh. Only relieves 60% of the pain and not advisable if delivery is expected within the next 3 hours. This is because this drug has effect on mother n baby such that both will become drowsy. And if Baby is borned within 3hrs after taking the drug, baby might be sleeping n not able to cry n exercise the lung. HOWEVER, there is an antidote to reverse this effect.


GAS to me seems the safest option. A mix of Nitrogen (if im not wrong) and Oxygen, u only need to breathe in deeply with the next contraction and it will be effective in 10 - 20 secs. No effect on baby.


EPIDURAL is the last resort with 100% of the pain gone. She said the procedure to get this epidural will take about 20mins or so... i was wondering what if there's a contraction in between??? Will the needle go astray when we squirm? You can actually choose to stop the epidural when u need to start pushing but u can also have it thru out. I sincerely hope i wont hafta come to this.


I had to ask my friend the next day how does the delivery suite look like. I had the impression that we would be delivering in a communal room just like a ward with 4 other pple inside! Cos i remember my mum telling me she could hear other women screaming. But maybe those were old times. So i imagined this suite is like for private patients and not for subsidised ones like me. Then how more private can a PRIVATE delivery suite be? *looks at Ma* hehehe


Also my concern is that, do i hafta continue covering my head? Doctors and nurses are excused of course... but i was afraid there might be some pple who got lost n peered inside... or if i would need to walk out to go to the toilet... My friend assured me tho that its all in the one room.


This friend also told me that she didnt hafta fork out any cash at all for her hospital stay even tho she had an epidural for the first one and a C-Sect for the second one. She also went thru Polyclinic like i am. Although i still have yet to confirm with the hospital, I felt sooooooo relieved! I'd take it to mean that even if somehow the rules have changed a bit, can't be too high.


I was told to prepare $2k or more just for hospital expenses. Some for deposit, and then additional charges that Medisave cannot cover and the fees escalate when u take more and more services.

Do i dare to breathe a sigh of relief? Ok just a bit. But still need to keep that money on standby lah! But at least im hoping there won't need to use it so i could spend it on getting more baby stuffs. Yayyness!!