My Pandemic Delivery Story

I’m now a mother of two cute daughters, and I had my second baby back in January 2021, in the middle of the pandemic.

When i found out i was pregnant, I was really nervous because of the whole COVID thing. The thing that scared me most was my delivery and my stay in the hospital. I didn’t wanted me or my baby to catch any virus. If you’re a parent, you would know how scary that situation must have felt.

I chose to give birth in maimonidies hospital and my doctor was Dr Bayya Vijaya, who deliveries in the same hospital.

I was worried about reducing my delivery cost because I now had private insurance because of my husband’s work, so we had to pay for some percent of the cost. The thing that annoyed me the most was that not the hospital nor the doctor was able to tell me how much I might need to pay in the end or what the total cost of delivery and everything else might be.

I went to my last doctor’s appointment on 28 January, which was also my due date; I wasn’t feeling like i was going into labour soon. But I wanted to make sure everything was ok because, with my first kid, I had to be induced because her heart rate kept dropping for some reason.

So the Dr. Bayya checked everything and told me I was already 4cm dilated, to which I was surprised. But she also told me that my water level was low maybe my water broke and i need to go to the hospital tomo for induction if I my labour doesn’t start. I was scared because being induced with my first baby; I knew that it’s a lot more painful than going to labor naturally.

I came home and I knew i had to do everything I can to go into labour that day. So after breakfast i ate a few dates and milk with some purified butter, it’s supposed to induce labour naturally. After that i took my two year old in a stroller and went for a long walk. I came home and after an hour went for a long walk again. Labour was in no sight, but my daughter and I had a lot of fun.

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Image by Juan Encalada on Unsplash

At 3 pm, I put my daughter to sleep and tried to sleep too but failed. So I started searching for some more ways to induce natural labour. I found out that talking hot shower can induce labour naturally too. So i took a long hot shower. It helped relieve my back pain too.

During the shower, I started getting pains, and they didn’t go away with time. I was pretty relieved and calm, knowing that I was in labor. My labor started at 4:30 pm. After an hour, I was having 30 sec long contractions every 15 mins. The contractions weren’t much painful.

At 6:30 pm my contractors were 30 — 45 sec long and were occurring every 7 — 10 mins. They were painful but bearable. I kept walking and going up and down the stairs, and it helped me bear the pain.

At 7 pm, my contractions got severe and were a minute long after every 3 — 4mins. I knew I needed to go to the hospital immediately. I got ready, and my mother in law and father in law took me to the hospital. It was about half an hour away from our hospital.

My husband stayed home with our daughter. On our way to the hospital, I felt like my contractions got worse because of sitting. I was able to bear them better while walking.

Image by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

So we were in the emergency room for Labour, and one of the doctors was monitoring my contractions to check if I should be transferred to the delivery room. I was just 5 cm dilated at that time.

So they transferred me to the delivery room. They hooked me to iv and contraction monitors. I was wearing a mask before but now removed it and no one cared about it because everyone else was wearing one.I wasn’t able to walk much which was making the contractions worse. That’s the thing I didn’t want to happen. I wanted to stay as long as possible in my home because at least I could walk and do some exercises to make the contractions bearable.

At 9 pm, the contractions were so bad I was crying, and my mother-in-law was massaging my back to help ease them. I decided not to get an epidural in this delivery. But now I was starting to think about getting one. Idk if the pain was that bad or my pain tolerance is low.

I called the nurse to check how far along I was. She told me I was 7 cm dilated. I was disappointed.

At 9:15 pm I couldn’t take it anymore and told my mother in law to ask the nurse to check me again. This time I was 8.5 — 9cm dilated. The nurse said I was more towards 8.5 cm. I told her I wanted an epidural. She said it would take a while because they have to arrange it now because earlier I said I didn’t wanted it.

I was still waiting for my doctor to come. The nurse told me she was on her way.

After 15 mins, which felt like hours of suffering, the anesthesiologist came. The anesthesiologist who gave me an epidural with my first baby was so good; he was so quick and I didn’t even felt a thing.

The guy told me to sit on the bed and not to move at all while he puts the needle in my back. I sat on the bed and my contraction started and it was so terrible, I wanted to scream like crazy. The guy told me to not to move yet, and I grabbed the nurse’s hand and squeezed it so bad. Idk how to elucidate that kind of pain.

And then all of a sudden the needle went into my back and I felt. I felt the whole damn thing. I felt it move in my spine and hurt so bad. And I kept feeling the pain from the needle for 2 — 3mins. I just kept praying for it to be over. And than again I got a contractors and this time, I felt pressure some in my stomach too. I told the nurse about it but she didn’t check me for anything. It felt like I needed to push the baby out but I wasn’t sure about it because the pain went away when the epidural started working.

I felt so relieved after the epidural. I wanted to sleep for a while before the delivery. But after a few mins my doc came and she checked me, and I was fully dilated. She told me I needed to start pushing.

Image by Manuel Schinner on Unsplash

It took just 5 — 6mins for me to push the baby out. I was surprised how quick it was. My mother-in-law cut the baby’s cord, and the nurse handed me the baby. She was born at 10:06 pm on 28 January.

I still remember how cute and chubby her face was. I fell in love on the first sight. She was 7.6 pounds and just 19 inches long. So tiny and cute. She latched immediately, and I fed her for an hour.

My labor was painful but was quick, and I was happy my delivery went so smoothly. The one thing that I was most worried about was getting stitches after delivered, and my doctor told me I didn’t get any which was so surprising. It was all because of my excellent doctor. I can’t thank her a lot. And I’m hoping to go to her in my subsequent pregnancy too.

After an hour, my husband came, and I was transferred to my recovery room. It was a shared room. I was with one more mother. The nurse took our baby for some checkup, and I was in the room with my husband, relaxing a bit.

Image by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash

The next morning i felt a lot better and was able to take a shower which felt so good. We got all of our daughters tests done on that day and my Doctor and the baby’s Doctor told us we can go home the next day and everything was fine. They usually keep you there for at least three days, but due to covid, we were able to come home early. I was glad to come home to my two-year-old. I missed her a lot. She loves her younger sister so much now.

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This post was previously published on A Parent Is Born.

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