More Funny/Interesting Stories About The Delivery

Saturday evening before I delivered I got a phone call from some people we know who tend to be big talkers, big advice givers, basically generally annoying. They wanted to come over and visit.

The wife is a nurse. I said to O., "Don't tell them I'm in labor", he said, "I was just going to say the same thing to you." Wouldn't you know that she's the nurse we eventually called and she got us into the hospital and stayed with me the whole time so I at least had someone to speak English with in the middle of the night while I was in labor... "Can you see the head yet????"

Another thing, O. never does anything alone. This was his first labor and delivery (my mom and dad did the other 3, O. stayed at home.) So, of course he needed his support group around him. They don't let fathers (or anyone) in the delivery room here with the mothers but he was outside in the waiting room -with our entire staff. I think there must have been about 15 men there getting eaten by mosquitoes and drinking chai in the middle of the night while they waited for me to deliver.

At one point I said to the girl who delivered the baby that I'm going to shout. She said, 'Everybody does." Heh heh heh she hadn't come across me before, I've been told by maternity staff that I'm loud. Still, I pushed on, "You're going to want to close the doors." I glanced back toward them, closed, but there was an unfortunate 2' X 4" opening at the top of the door. I thought, "Not good."

O. and others later told me that at my first shout all the men in the waiting room ran outside and down the steps and into the parking lot. (I was in the back of the hospital on the 2nd floor). Every time I shouted the nurses, etc. would say, "Close your mouth, don't make any noise, bear down." I tried, I really did.

The men said they could hear me shouting clear out in the parking lot.

By the end when I didn't even care to try to obey the nurses anymore and I just let it out, O. and my brother-in-law came rushing all the way back to the delivery room. That's when they heard the baby cry.

Apparently, P. let out a big cry at first and they all though she must be a boy to have such a loud cry (Hadn't they learned anything from the loud woman shouting only moments before?) Typical.

Well, I'm not ashamed of being loud, I think these men should have some idea what we women suffer through to give birth to their children.

Ok, one last story. Both of my sister-in-laws' husbands were there when I delivered. One is a pastor and one a truck driver. Both of them came home and separately told their wives "When I heard Bhabhie (me) crying while the baby was being born, I started crying myself."

Bethlehem

It was a little bit like Bethlehem over here on Saturday night.

I was having contractions all day and by 11PM I decided to call the hospital to tell them I'd be coming in in a few hours. Unfortunately, I was told my Doctor was out of town for the weekend (She's the only OBGYN there.) I asked who else to call and they gave me the name of another doctor but they didn't have any number.

We decided to send O. and his entourage over to that hospital to try to get me admitted and that doctor was also out of town.

Lesson to be learned: never go into labor on Saturdays or Sundays in India - well anywhere, this happened to me with E.'s birth too - in the US!

Eventually, O. and his guys went to about six different hospitals and we couldn't find a doctor to take us. He called me up and told me the situation and I said, go find a midwife I'll deliver at home with her and my two sister-in-laws. However, O. decided to call up one more nurse friend of ours and she sent them to another maternity hospital and the doctor agreed to see me.

I arrived a little before midnight and he checked me out and admitted me. Praise the Lord. But here's the thing, he had no rooms open in his hospital so he kindly had a cot put in an administrative office room and let me stay there. That was fine by me.

This doctor and his wife have a large practice and they have just built a million dollar hospital but they were shifting everything over to the new facility on Sunday - I reached when - Saturday night. The old hospital where I delivered was so nasty and run down - even by Indian standards - they had just let it go knowing they were building the new facility. At that point in my labor I didn't care, not even about delivering on an old metal table with other people's dried blood and gore dried on it - yeah - not an exaggeration.

Yet, God was good, I walked up and down the hallway, once the pain got real bad the pressure started almost immediately. They checked my dilation and I was only 4cm. I couldn't believe it. That's it! I got off the table and tried to walk some more, I got about 10 steps and grabbed the girl (who eventually did the delivery) and pulled her back into the room with me. I suffered thru another contraction, hoisted myself up on the bed and called for Rohini (the nurse friend who sent us to this hospital) - She said wait a minute she wanted to finish drinking her chai along with everyone in the waiting room.

Bam, that baby came fast. Later someone told me that from the moment they heard me shout the first time to the time they heard the baby cry was about 10 or 15 minutes max.

Eventually, the doctor came and did all the finishing things - which took about an hour - very unpleasant.