Singapore Birth story - Valarie and baby Maya

Context:

My husband and I now live in Singapore, where almost all births are in the hospital, there are no midwives, and a very high elective C-section rate. The stories from this community helped me so much in transforming my mindset and approach to birth. I posted my own positive story for my firstborn here early last year, and wanted to share the story for my second baby this year as well.

Story:

We went with the same very experienced and pro-natural OBGYN. We even ended up in the same maternity suite in the same hospital! This pregnancy was very different from my first, in the sense I was taking a more relaxed approach and life was going on much like normal. Plus we had an active toddler undergoing various developmental milestones and sleep regressions.

On Saturday night (37+1), I had some menstrual-like cramps before going to bed. They were quite mild, went away after about an hour and I went to sleep like normal. On Monday morning (37+3) at 9am, we went for our scheduled doctor’s appointment. I was planning to go into the office that afternoon for some last few meetings. To my surprise, I was already 3cm dilated and the doctor was quite sure I would deliver that week.

We went home, and later around 1pm, I felt some mild irregular surges. We felt comfortable going to the hospital earlier to get set up and labour there, so we packed up and got admitted by 3.30pm. By 5.30pm, nothing much had changed. The surges were manageable with breathing exercises and bouncing on the gym ball, but I was getting frustrated. Somehow I had an expectation that things would happen within minutes because it was my second baby. Doctor came to check in and I complained about not much happening so I let him do a membrane sweep to help things along, and then had some dinner at 6pm.

At 8pm there was finally some bloody show and the surges started getting much more intense. Doctor came to check in again because the wireless CTG monitoring was showing an intermittent fetal heart rate. We decided to break my water bag so that he could check the fluid. All was clear. It was probably because of the poor signal from bouncing on the gym ball.

The next 1-2 hours were intense. After 10pm I finally felt the strong urge to bear down and had to get on an upright position on my knees (despite the nurses not being too happy about that and wanting me in the “standard” birthing position - they were luckily overridden by the doctor). 40 minutes and a few pushes later, baby was born!

Like before, I had no tearing. Recovery has been relatively smooth due to no pain relief drugs and no stitches, and baby is doing well. This time around, I’m prioritizing my own personal mental health, which has had a profoundly positive impact. I’m feeling comfortable in the knowledge that I can be a better mother to both my daughters if I prioritize my own wellbeing first.

Hope that this story encourages us all to support each other throughout our own individual birthing journeys and choices in motherhood. Keep going, strong mamas out there!