As traumatic as labour can be, there are much worse ways for it to happen. This is a story sent to me by a friend. You could argue that it was actually a pretty good labour….except for the matter of where the baby went
As traumatic as labour can be, there are much worse ways for it to happen. This is a story sent to me by a friend. You could argue that it was actually a pretty good labour….except for the matter of where the baby went
A bloke isn’t really the best person to talk about the labour process. Let’s face it, we can never really understand what it feels like to give birth. So I’ll talk about the little bits and pieces I can.
Mummy A was kept in hospital for the next few days, in the hope that she would start having contractions. Alas this was not to be, so on the Monday evening we were taken to the labour ward to induce labour.
I don’t want to scare people…so I’m not going to say too much! When labour is induced everything proceeds much quicker than normal, and more intensive as well. Mummy A said it was very painful. Extremely painful. Obviously I have no idea how painful, but imagine having your teeth pulled out one by one. It’s more painful than that.
… Moving swiftly on! Maybe one day Mummy A will add her own comments, but until that day we’ll leave it at that.
Labour lasted 5 hours and about half way through the midwife asked for Baby A’s clothes to get them ready. Unfortunately I’d left the clothes in the car. Hey, I wasn’t to know! All these bloody hospital shows have corrupted us – they make you think the hospital wraps the baby up and sorts things out for you! I thought my only job was to pat the wife’s hand.
So, halfway through the labour I had to dash out to the car to get the stuff. Obviously I had parked the car miles away, and I had the smart idea of running to and from the labour ward.
…20 minutes later I made it back in with the baby bag…gasping for breath and sweating bucketloads! I spent a few minutes cleaning myself up and went back in the room. Then I felt nauseous and had to go back in (no, I wasn’t feeling sick because I was tense about the birth!). I am so unfit that I was still struggling for breath and the combination of the laughing gas in the air made me queasy.
Mummy A was not best pleased that I left her for a while in pain, but would she rather I threw up over her?
