My Birth Story

I gave birth to my daughter Ava on 20 April 2011 after nearly 16 hours in labor (I was in labor from 5pm on April 19 until 9:23am the next day).   Honestly, giving birth is just something that a woman has to experience on her own.  When you're pregnant, you hear stories from so many mommies who have gone through the birthing process but no one can ever give an exact description of the experience.

My original due date to give birth was on 17 April 2011.  A couple of months back, my ob-gyn, Dr. Faye Cagayan, told my husband, AP, and I that she was determined to have me give birth to Ava very close to my due date and  not wait until 2 weeks after my due date.  So on April 18 during my weekly doctor's appointment, we were instructed to go to and check in at the Philippine General Hospital in order to begin labor induction.  AP and I arrived at PGH at 1pm on April 19.  Since there were few private rooms available at the time, we opted to get the suite.  What we didn't realize was how huge the room was.  It was basically the size of a regular condo.

 I tried to get comfortable but in just a couple of hours, I was brought to the labor room to prepare for the induction.  Unfortunately, guests are  not allowed in the labor room so AP had to wait in our room.  During the early part of labor, I was able to follow the breathing exercises that we learned with Ms. Chiqui Brosas.  There was pain but it was tolerable when I did the exercises.  The residents kept asking me if I would want to opt to take drugs but at the time, I said that I could handle it.  However, by the later part of labor, when I was around 6-8cm dilated already, I gave in and asked for an epidural.

Let me tell you, even with epidural, when the baby is ready to come out, you will still feel a lot of pain.  By the time I was fully dilated, I was already screaming that I was in pain.  During Chiqui's classes, I learned that I should make the doctors and nurses aware if I had the urge to push already.  Since Doc Cagayan was still on her way to PGH, they told me to wait for her before I could push.  Those were the longest minutes of my life.  When she arrived, the first thing out of my mouth was "Can I push already???" but she said that I had to wait for a few more minutes to wheel me in to the delivery room.

By the time they wheeled me in, I was ready to just push.  However, they still needed to prepare me.  During that time, I was still able to give a tutorial on how to use my dad's SLR since the people who were assigned to take pictures for me were not used to that kind of camera hahaha!!!

When everything was set, Doc Cagayan told me to hold on to the handles on either side of the bed and when I felt the contractions, to push as hard as I can.  After about 8 pushes and with one of the male attendants pushing on my stomach, Ava Marie came out kicking and screaming.  She was 6 lbs. and 3 oz. and was 50 cm tall.  What a crazy, crazy moment.  I was both sobbing and laughing by the time they gave Ava to me.

Looking at my baby for the first time, just made every thing that I went through worth it.  She is such a beautiful baby.  Now that we're home I still can't believe that I really went through all that and I now have a baby girl.  =)