This Is How My Baby Decided To Go Against My Birth Plan

Believe me when I say I had read every book in the world on child birth and labour for the second time (second because this was going to be the second child). And I thought the birth of my second baby would go the same way as the first one did – smooth and problem-free. But boy I was wrong!

It all started fine though. I was there in the delivery room, waiting when I would be dilated enough to finally get into the mom-action mode! I really thought everything was going just fine. Just like last time. It was all smooth. There was nothing wrong and I thought that nothing would be. But then the inevitable happened. My water broke, and all hell broke loose with it.

What ensued in the next 30 minutes was equal parts unexpected and equal parts terrifying. My water breaking wasn’t good news for my baby. Her head slipped way down my pelvis and her heart rate began to take a dip. There were sounds coming from all the machines indicating a foetal distress call. My heart sank lower when the nurse and the doctor barged into my room with tense expressions on their faces.

Before they could even tell me what was going on, an oxygen mask was put on me and foetal scalp electrode monitor was attached to my baby’s head while she was still inside me. The doctors and the nurses tried to flip me over, side to side in every possible position so that the pressure of the umbilical cord on my baby could be relieved. But simply nothing worked and I was told that I had to get a C-section.

From that moment, things escalated so quickly that I didn’t get the time to accept all that was going on around me. But feelings still came as strongly as ever, and a myriad of them all at once. Confusion, panic, anxiety, stress: all of them hit me at the same time. All I could think of was ‘just please let my child be safe, please.’

The fact that I had to go through a C-section was unnerving for me. My previous delivery was a vaginal birth and I surely couldn’t bring myself to accept this alternative at the last moment when I had actually come in prepared to go through another vaginal delivery.

I don’t know what happened next. Maybe god was on my side because as soon as I was going to be taken away to the surgery room, my OB-GYN came up to check how much I had dilated. Fortunately, it was 10cm and even before I knew it, my legs had been placed on the stirrups and was being asked to push.

And push I did. After three pushes and one contraction, my baby girl came into this world with the umbilical cord coiled around her neck. My heart stopped beating for a second. And then she cried and I felt life rush back into my bones.

The point I’m trying to make is that no matter how much you plan, your delivery may not turn out even close to what you expected. You have to be prepared for the worst; you have to know the possible complications that can happen. And to be honest, even that is not enough. You have to be flexible and have to prepare yourself to adapt to any of the changes that are made to your tentative labour plan. Always expect the unexpected when you’re in the delivery room and be prepared for the exact opposite of what you planned.

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