[Birth Story - Checked in at 5cm dilation] 😰

Back again at Mount Alvernia Hospital for the birth of my 2nd child on 27 October 2023. Definitely my most trusted hospital and they recently opened a new building just for mummies and babies. There’s even a glass nursery for you to peek at your lil one. Nurses there are very friendly and experienced. You’re definitely in safe and good hands under their care.

Facilities are new and there’s plenty of ward rooms. They organise hospital tours (which I signed up prior so that I know which room I want and to get the orientation right since it’s the first time visit to the new building. There’s also some freebies so pls sign up for the tour!). It’s gonna be chaotic on your day of delivery so it’s good to prep beforehand.

🚪: STANDARD SINGLES @ OUR LADY AND ST RAPHAEL

Delivery Type: Natural with Epidural

👩🏻‍⚕️: Dr Goh Shen Li (she’s the best ever! Highly recommend her and her pricing is reasonable. Btw, I prefer a female gynae) both times I give birth, there’s NO TEAR AT ALL

🅿️ : Plenty of parking space available!

Visited gynae in the morning of 26 Oct (39+ weeks) and she told me I’m already 2cm dilated. I dragged a little since I wanted to spend more time with my #1 and to make sure that all arrangements are made proper before I deliver. We discussed and decided to check into the hospital early morning around 6am on 27 Oct instead. However, at around 9pm that night, I had very unbearable cramps and was literally trembling in pain. Pulled myself together to do a quick shower (I know I won’t be able to shower once I give birth) before zooming to the hospital.

Reached hospital at 1030pm, my hubs dropped me off at the pick up point right in front of the hospital. At that time, the contractions was so pain that I could barely walk and had to sit on wheelchair. There’s plenty at the pick up area too. The kind security guard wheeled me up to check in while my hubs went to park the car. Medical staff there are extremely experienced. They checked for my dilation immediately and told me it’s already 5cm! They arranged for epidural procedure at once. I was told if the dilation is more than 6cm, epidural cannot be administered. So in a way I was lucky! Pls opt for epidural ladies. Personally, I don’t think epidural procedure is painful at all. So be brave mamas! The contraction is much worse. My preferred anaesthetist is Dr Mary Lim but she was not around at that time. She administered for me for my first born and it was totally painless. Just listen carefully to their instructions and you’ll be fine.

After epidural, I felt much much better! They told me to rest for the night to wait for my gynae to come in the morning. While on epidural, no food and liquid is allowed so I’m literally fasting.

Gynae came in at 730am and I’m ready to push my baby. As I didn’t eat the whole day, (my last meal was lunch the day before) and I had to push when I just woke up, it took around 45min to push my baby out. Was kinda worried since I felt quite weak. But guess what, the nurse told me that breakfast will be served once I push the baby out and so mama here tried super hard and kept talking to baby to come out so that we can both end this and I can finally eat and drink! And also, my gynae informed me that my epidural finished so I have only 2 hours left before the effect is gone. All the more i felt super motivated to push baby out.

After he’s out at 3.23kg, we spent 1 hour skin to skin together and it was the most amazing experience staring at this tiny being who’s inside me for 9 months. By the time we are done, it’s already lunch time and I finally get to eat. Overall, I had the best birthing experience and hope all mummies to be find my sharing useful. All the best!

Tips:

- nurses will encourage breastfeeding once you give birth. I’ve learnt from past experience that YOU, mama need rest. Tell the nurses to give formula milk to baby at night. Try to latch baby during the day.

- your milk will take some time to kick in. Pls don’t expect your bm to show up immediately. Latching is only stimulating your body to produce bm

- relax and chill. Catch up on your sleep and rest at night! I specifically told the nurse not to disturb me from 12am-6am on day 2. Otherwise, they will come in every other time to check on you and give u medication

- you’ll be expected to urine shortly after being stitched up. It’s not that bad. It’s the poo poo that’s much worse. You can use slow running water together while peeing to minimise the sting

- before checking out, I informed my gynae that I needed to clear my bowels as I didn’t poop the entire stay despite taking the liquid medical laxatives and so I was administered a stronger laxatives and had soft stools which the pain is actually bearable.

I’ll curate a list of what to pack in your hospital bag next!

#motherhood #birthstory #newborn

#RealTalk