Aidan's Birth Story

The Birth of Aidan Kailash P.

On Saturday, May 21, 2005, I had started feeling strong menstrual-type cramps starting just before lunch. Mother, Golf and I walked to the Bon Marche market for lunch and they became more noticeable. That afternoon, however, the cramping subsided, so I just assumed these were just increasingly painful Braxton Hicks contractions, which I had been getting since my sixth or seventh month of pregnancy. I had no other symptoms of pre-labor.

At around 6 PM, Mom and I decided to walk around the condo buildings for some exercise and my contractions were coming just over five minutes apart. I still thought they were just the Braxton Hicks again, because I had no bloody show or any other symptoms of pre-labor at that time. We went to dinner about 6:30 and my contractions were definitely at five minutes apart. I couldn’t eat through my contractions and my mom could tell it was the real thing coming on, although I was still doubtful.

We came back to the apartment and I shower and shave my legs, just in case. Golf had a job that had come in, so he was frantically working at the computer trying to get as much of it done as he could while Mom and I watched a Monk DVD to pass time. And the contractions kept on coming five minutes apart to the second. He kept looking up at us with such nervousness as each contraction came.

We decided that we needed to get to the hospital at about 9:30. By 9:45 we had finished packing up everything we needed, and my contractions were steadily gaining strength. We got to Bumrungrad Hospital by 10 PM, taking a taxi. In the emergency room they checked me and I was only 1 cm dilated! I couldn’t believe it; Mom was convinced I’d be at 5 already. But I was in too much pain to consider leaving the hospital, and I was checked into the Labor and Delivery ward.

Midnight came the contractions kept coming and I tried different positions to manage the pain, my favorite being on all fours on the bed because my legs tensed up too much. Suddenly, I felt a gush of wetness. My water had broken! Now I knew the contractions were going to come faster. The pain was becoming more intense and the nurse offered a pain killer to help until I could get the epidural. However this painkiller also would also make me drowsy. I was naturally tired anyway with it being so late at night and the painkiller made me so groggy that I actually slept in between my five minute contractions. But I still managed to get up onto all fours when they came on. Now every time I had a contraction, amniotic fluid would gush out, so I stayed lying down.

The anesthesiologist then arrived for my epidural. I kept waiting for my contractions to become less painful, but they only became a little less painful. This is because I was dilating too fast.

My doctor (Dr. Nopadol) was called about an hour later and at about 1 AM or so, he arrived at the hospital and checked me. I was coming along quickly. He came back an hour or so later and checked again. This time I was 9 cm! He told me I would start to push around 3:15 and he would come back and get everything ready around 3. He said there was a great likelihood he would need to use forceps.

Well 3 AM comes and Golf and I see more staff wheeling in all sorts of medical devices, trays, tables, lights… I thought, wow, this is it! Our baby’s going to be here so soon! I felt mostly nervous and scared about this part. And it was time, I knew because my contractions were making me push – it was a very strange feeling, my body pushing all by itself and powerfully. Sure enough at 3:15, the doctor came back and he was in full sterile wardrobe and Golf had to change into a cap and gown. The bottom half of the bed was lowered and I was officially ready to push.

There were two nurses on either side of the bed who coached me to push when the doctor said to. At first my uterus was not pushing with me and I felt like I was useless. But the next time I pushed, I felt my uterus going to work and I pushed like I never thought I could. It was amazing that my body could do this! After about 5 or 6 pushes, the doctor announced that the next push could deliver my baby. Just before that, I felt a very sharp sting. He was giving me an episiotomy. I felt a contraction coming on and I said I was ready and my body pushed with all its might and suddenly I felt Aidan’s head pop out and a gush of water. The doctor never had to use the forceps, thank goodness. He suctioned the baby’s nose and mouth and before he could finish, my body, of its own will, pushed Aidan’s body out in a quick, slippery movement.

Dr. Nopadol placed the baby on my belly for us to take a good look at him. His little eyes were open but he wasn’t crying yet. I touched his wet head. I did it! We have our baby! Golf told me how much he loved me and how proud he was of me and we kissed. The doctor then cut the cord and Aidan had to be taken from us to the warmer to be cleaned and suctioned out. When he was on that table, Golf followed the nurses to watch and take pictures. Aidan then cried heartily and I felt better and elated.

The doctor began pushing my belly to deliver the placenta. It hurt a bit, but I never really felt it coming out. I saw it after he pulled it out, but I was too tired to care much. Then he went to work stitching up my episiotomy. I had no idea how big of a cut he made (I later on looked in a mirror and it looked well over an inch long, a very big cut!). It hurt quite a bit at first and he gave me a local anesthetic. During this time, the baby had been moved to the room where they weigh and measure him and do some testing. Golf went with them and I practically fell asleep as the doctor stitched me up.

Our baby weighed 7 lbs 7 oz. (In Thailand metric units are used, so he was 3.51kg. and 53 cm long). We spent 3 days and two nights in the hospital and relaxed and recovered and started to get to know each other. Since my labor was so fast – just under six hours at the hospital, Aidan’s head was very nicely shaped. My baby had no cone head. He was so cute! A perfect mix between my beloved husband and me.