My EDD date was supposed to be Nov 18th 2017. On that day, nothing happened i.e no show. Before that date, I had already started some evening excercise as recommended. So when the date past, I just continued my routine exercise. It was past my due date on the 24th that I started receiving some labor signs. First, my water broke at 8pm when I went to urinate. Immediately i noticed my water broke, I went to the hospital even though I didn't feel a single pain. They had to admit me since my water had already broken cos there is no way you can go home if your water has broken. The gynaecologist came and accessed me and recommended that they wait till morning to see if labor will naturally initiate at midnight. As the doctor said, I was expecting labor to start at midnight but to my surprise, I slept very very well with no single pain, no contraction. I found myself the next morning at 6am. Around 8am, the medical team agreed that they would induce labor since i wasn't still feeling any sign. So my doctor had to induce labor with a single dose of misoprostol. Hehehehe, I laugh in swahili. It was that single tiny dose of injection that turned me upside down for the next 8 hours! Yeah labor started.
The experience of labor is something one doesn't fully prepare. No matter how you prepare your mind towards it, you are never fully prepared for what you are about to go through. Each lady passes through her own experience and each labor is unique in it's own right.
My own labor transformed me into a drama queen in the labor ward, Lol. Even though it lasted for 8 hours, those 8 hours were dramatic. I couldn't believe that such pain threshold was associated with labor. Yea, labor pain threshold is wayyy high. I started by breathing in and out for hours while bearing the pain at the beginning, then started crying plus praying for the next four hours and when I couldn't bear it anymore at the tail end, I then started screaming. Did I run around the labor ward? Sure!
For the sake of expecting mums, I tried to downplay on the labor pains. The only accurate way to describe labor pains is by going through it yourself. It's just not something you can put on a scale between 1-10. But the awesome thing about giving birth is that you forget the enormous pain you went through when you finally carry your baby in your arms :). That new life you brought into the world, staring into your eyes will tell you it was worth it.
Thanks for reading. You can read my blog here http://akachukwuebite.blogspot.com/2018/02/my-labour-room-story.html