Chapter four: PUSH!
Suddenly I was
screaming louder than before. I didn’t know that it could even be possible.
Kelsey took a look and said that I had ruptured my membranes. That’s fancy
midwife talk for waters breaking. I was beginning to panic. I had heard stories
about the water being different colours meaning the baby was distressed. I
asked that they were normal, they were.
I had the sudden urge
to push. I began to scream. “I need to push, I wanna push!”
I could see the feet
of the good looking doctor behind the curtain. I was feeling so miserable I
almost told him to bugger off, but then thought I may eventually appreciate the
extra company and set of hands (as long as they stayed away from ‘that’ area)
later on.
Kelsey told me I
needed to calm down, and that I couldn’t push until they checked me out first. I
had some more gas and the head midwife, I think she is the boss, came in and
told me to calm down. By then I had had some more gas and I looked into her
eyes. They weren’t that lovely green colour like Kelsey and Jess’, but they were
brown. Nonetheless I told her she had beautiful eyes also. Then Kelsey broke it
to me that I couldn’t have gas when I was pushing. I was devastated.
They had to do another
one of those invasive internals to make sure I was 10cm before I could start
pushing. And this time I had to have two, to make sure. By this stage it didn’t
hurt anymore. Thank goodness I was 10cm.
Kelsey asked what I
was having. I didn’t tell many people what I was having when I was pregnant so
I hesitated, but I told her that I was having a boy. She asked if I had a name
picked out and I told her that I had, and it was a secret!
They raised the bed so
that I could hang over the back of it. They said it would be easier to push
this way and that gravity would help me through it. It was so hot and they made
me take off all of my clothes. By this stage I figured everyone had seen everything
so why not. I was still boiling. I asked if they could turn the heater off, but
they said they had to keep the room really warm for when the baby came out.
I looked at the clock.
It was about 5pm. I had no idea how long it would take to push the baby out. I
actually doubted somewhat that I could, as I thought that because my Mum had me
via C-section, it must automatically make me the same. The midwives didn’t
understand that when I told them. This is the part when I started to push.
With every contraction
I pushed like I was doing a poo. The midwives were cheering me on, saying, “put
it into your bum! Yeah, that’s it!” Then they got a torch out and shone it
where the sun doesn’t shine. “Wow, he has black hair like his daddy!” they
said. The student doctor had to hold this thing to check the baby’s heartbeat
against my stomach. It was so tight and uncomfortable but it had to stay there.
I think I may had done
a poo. It felt like I was not getting anywhere, but the midwives assured me
that the baby was definitely moving down. Throughout the course of the pushing,
I thought about really random things, such as the tulips in Holland. Then I
thought, maybe it’s not a boy. Maybe the sonographer got it wrong! She was a
student, and it could have just been an umbilical cord in the way. I needed to
get this baby out, because I needed to know.
Once I got near to the
end of pushing, they made me change position – to my side, lying down. Hendrik
was given the job of holding one leg up in the air. I asked him to put it on
his shoulder so that it didn’t feel like it was going to fall. As I continued
to push, Hendrik held my leg while the student doctor wiped my face and gave me
sips of water.
Kelsey got an apron on.
She told me to do little puffs and push very slowly. She told me it would
sting. As I kept going I kept waiting for the sting. No sting, perhaps the baby
is still a fair way off. I kept pushing and puffing, and just when I thought it’d
be at least another half hour, suddenly the pressure was gone and I saw a whole
body slip out…
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