Our Birthing Experience by Lim Siew Lean (and hubby Darren De Wind)

At 2am on the morning 8 January 2008, I was having difficulty sleeping. I kept going to the toilet, and although I dozed off a few times, it was never really a deep sort of sleep. At about 6am I felt pressure in my lower abdomen and I thought to myself maybe my contractions/surges (as recommended in Hypnobirthing – HB) were starting and I had better take a shower in anticipation of the impending birth. So I took a warm shower while sitting on my gym ball, which was very relaxing. As the pressure became stronger, I began to practice visualizing that my cervix was opening like a satin ribbon (as recommended in HB). It helped ease the pain for a while.

After the shower, my surges were getting closer and stronger. I asked my husband to time the surges. It dropped from 4 minutes to 2 minutes within half an hour. My husband Darren and I still remained very calm and decided then that it was finally time to go to the hospital. At 6.45am we left for the hospital and arrived at 7.10am. During that time my surges were very intense. Upon reaching the hospital, the nurses checked me and I was 9cm dilated. My husband and I were very surprised, and relieved that we had gotten to the hospital just in the nick of time.

As I was already experiencing pain, I asked the nurses for some relief. Unfortunately I was told that it was too late for painkillers. They could only provide laughing gas at that stage of birth. In hindsight, I am glad that I could not take an epidural as during the birthing process, I felt in control and was constantly aware of my surroundings.

The nurses monitored the baby’s heart beat and it was steady. In the labour room, my husband switched on a relaxing CD that I had been listening to throughout the pregnancy, and the music helped to keep me relaxed. During this time the doctor had been informed of our arrival and was in the midst of rushing to the hospital.

He walked in just before 8am, and almost as soon as he put on his “butcher’s” attire, my baby started to crown. The gynaecologist I had was Dr Choong, and throughout the pregnancy had been very supportive of natural birth, and supported me on VBAC. The doctor asked me how I was, and I remembered giving him the thumbs up. During the crowning process, Dr Choong asked me whether I wanted to touch the baby’s head. I reached down and touched the top of my baby’s head.

HB had really prepared me to have no fear during birthing. Before the next surge, I asked the nurses to raise the seat so that I could be in a more vertical position to give birth to my baby. I went with my body, and what felt right at that point in time. I was relaxed throughout, and waited for the next surge to come. I breathed my baby down with one last deep breath, and baby was born at 8.10am.

Thank goodness for my husband’s and doctor’s F1 driving skills. Thanks to HB, I learned to relax throughout the process.

As soon as baby was born, she was put on my chest where both my husband and I bonded with her. In actual fact, we didn’t know at the time if she was a boy or a girl as we wanted to keep it a surprise to the end. It was only after about fifteen minutes that we remembered to ask the doctor!

After about half an hour – once the umbilical cord had stopped pulsating – we allowed the umbilical cord to be cut. This was one of the items listed in our birth plan, and I would strongly encourage anyone planning for a hospital delivery to have one ready prior to birth and to go through it with your doctor to make clear what your expectations are during birth (of course, this would be void during an emergency).

For all this, we thank Dr Choong for being open-minded to our requirements and respecting our wishes. This helped to make the birth of baby Emily all the more memorable.

And finally we’d like to say a big thank you to Wai Han for taking us through the HB syllabus, and for giving me the assurance and confidence to attempt natural birth after previously having gone through a C-section. All this would not have been possible without her patient coaching and dedication.

Baby Emily