The Birth of Peanut - V

Well, time to push.  An unpleasant side effect of epidural was both legs were lacking strength.  But I still managed to use several positions to do the pushing.  Whenever I was pushing hard, one of the nurse would stay with me and say, “Push, push, push, push harder.  Oh, honey, that’s a wonderful push!”  It was almost the same every time.  I could only ask peanut’s dad for the truth.  Sometimes, he would say nothing changed, but sometimes, he would be so excited and told me that the opening was wider or he saw a black dot far back trying to come out.  It had been like this for almost 2 hours.

 Although the nurses were still very positive about my pushing, I felt it progressed not as expected as it was supposed to be.  And making it worse, I felt the pain coming back to me starting from my left thigh.  The nurses let me have a break and they talked to the doctor for solutions.  Minutes after, the resident doctor came in to check the baby’s position.

 Peanut was in the middle of the birth canal but not in the exactly perfect position.  It was obvious that he was turning to the right one.  And I was told further that peanut’s head was pressing one of my nerves, causing the unbearable feelings in my left thigh.  The attending doctor decided to give me a stronger drug to relieve me from the pain completely.  An older anaesthetist came in to administer the drug for me.  This time, the drug was definitely a stronger one as I hardly felt the contractions coming, and my right leg was completely numb.  The soreness in my left thigh slowly went away as well.

Then the attending doctor told me that she didn’t want me to push anymore with the nerve being pressed by the baby.  She recommended to go with the forceps first.  If that failed to bring the baby out, a cesarean would be performed.  Forceps were used to bring the baby out, and some cuts were required.  But it was not an operation.  Cesarean was an operation.  As I said before, being in this kind of situation, you really didn’t have many choices but follow whatever you were told to do.  I wasn’t scared as I knew that was the best way to handle the situation.  And I really believed that I was in good hands.

About half an hour later, I was transferred to the operation room by a stretcher.  Although forceps would be used first, everything had been done as if a cesarean would be performed, including signing an operation agreement.  Due to the side effect of the drug, my entire body except for legs was shaking involuntarily.