In natural birth, once the body has signaled that it’s time for baby to come out, the woman’s body naturally produces a hormone for the contractions to occur. Along with this, her body also produces the pleasant and beautiful endorphins that help ease the pain during contractions. Just to make sure that I mention this, it only helps to ease the pain; it most certainly does not take away the pain – a pain that I, as a man and a husband, will never be able to fathom and attempt to describe to women, as this may be hazardous to my health 🙂

Imagine coming from a deep slumber. Dawn is about to break. A gentle breeze from the hills, the sound of birds chirping, and the smell of bacon and eggs sizzling causes you to stir and finally wake to bright and wonder filled day. Now, “induced” labor, DOES NOT do this! And this, my friends, was the adventure that we had so thoughtfully decided to embark.  *sigh*

Oooh yes…

So, the hormone signaling for contractions to occur was given to her rather than her body naturally producing it and going through the process of telling her as gently as possible that baby is coming. The “administered” hormone meant that there is greater possibility that contractions would be longer and much more painful.

In the beginning, she was fine. Nurses were quite encouraging saying how she was doing very well and that they were sure she would pull through with it with no need for an epidural. She was smiling 🙂 But then contractions got serious. She got serious. I got serious. She was most definitely not smiling. Pain was still pain but this probably seemed like pain on steroids compared to her labor with Alab and Ilaya.

After hours of breathing through the pain, she asked for the epidural.

The anesthesiologist came in with the obstetrician. The moment she saw the anesthesiologist, she pointed at him as if begging him to get it done. Suddenly, it seemed like the obstetrician signaled the anesthesiologist to get behind the curtain. Gina whimpered, “Where is he going!? Why is he going away?!!!” And also suddenly, her groaning and moaning had an abrupt stop! As if she was expecting this to happen all along, the obstetrician said with a calm tone, “She’s pushing.” Next thing I knew, doctors were telling her to close her mouth when pushing and that baby Leon is coming!

I could only really comment on my experience. My experience was different this time around. I could say that I had a more difficult time “helping.” Instead of walking her through the pain, I found myself in a panic trying to find any form of comfort she can get. But, seeing how all of our experiences were so different, in the end of it all, we really acknowledge that it is by His grace that Gina made it all the way to the end. Although her hard labor was relatively quicker compared to before, it just seemed to be more intense. In the future, it would probably be wise to put even more thought into decisions that involve more pain 🙂

Note:
Gina DID notice the anesthesiologist hide behind the curtain. Oooooh and she did not like it! It angered her! I think she felt as if people were conspiring and keeping her from having the epidural. She most definitely let me, as well as everybody in the room know (in a way that should probably be left unsaid 🙂 ) that she was very, oh so very upset. Dealing with the pain, pushing and verbalizing utter disappointment all at the same time! I saw the woman’s ability to multitask in its purest form! Anyway, in a matter of minutes (or maybe even seconds!), Leon Andreo was with us.