Labour - comes from the Latin word laborare, which means "to be tired".

If I don’t write about my labour story now, I will never do it. So let me go ahead and write it now when I have no shame whatsoever talking about breasts, cervix, vagina, etc...! So here it goes...

After going through a pretty cool pregnancy I am waiting with excitement for my due date which is 4 days away. My mom and I go for a walk and some shopping. She tells me that it might even take a week or 10 days for the baby to come as I am not showing any signs and I am really disappointed hearing that. (My mom swore she said nothing like that after I had the baby the very same night!) Around 7 pm, I have some bloody discharge. So I call HD and ask him to hurry home. The very brief phone conversation we ve ever had, goes something like this:
Me: I am bleeding!
HD: Really?
Me: What do you mean really?
HD: I am on my way.
So he comes home in 10 minutes and we try to figure out what to do. I still might be days away from having the baby. So I call my sister and then my experienced friend and then again my doctor friend and all of them tell me "GO TO THE HOSPITAL". In the mean time, I am getting back aches from nowhere and it is mild in the beginning. My mom insists I eat something. I call up the hospital and they tell me to wait for the contractions to start. But by 10 pm, my back ache is bad and I call up my sister and friends and they tell me again, "GO TO THE HOSPITAL"! So I call up the hospital and tell them I am coming. HD and I take a cab to the hospital which is 10 minutes away while my mom stays at home. I tell her that I ll be back in a while as one of my friends was nt admitted until she was well into the labour. I leave my "already packed and ready to go" suitcase and just take a backpack with some essential things.

It is 11 pm when we go to the hospital and a nurse examines me and tells that I am already 3 cms dilated (the cervix has opened 3 cms wide) and asks me if I want to go home or stay at the hospital. I don’t know why I decided to stay because usually I hate hospitals and run at the first chance I get. So I stay. HD is wondering what to do when the nurse shows us our room which has a spare bed for HD. Cool, I am thinking! It will be like staying in a hotel! I have mild contractions and I think I am strong, this is nothing; I can handle it. The nurse says it might even take 10 hours to be fully dilated. (10cms.)

But by 12.30 am, the pain is getting worse, the nurse has finished her shift and another nice lady takes in charge and I ask her for Epidural. She examines me and says it is too early for Epidural and she is not so nice to my eyes anymore. I am also hooked to the contraction monitor and that thing is supposed to record my contractions. I had always imagined it will be like one of those earthquake recording devices going crazy with the graph and showing only peaks. But this prints out graph in a boring fashion. HD and I discuss if the numbers on the top is the baby’s heartbeat!

Things are getting worse. I start cursing like I never did in my whole life. I try to breathe properly but I don’t care anymore. The anaesthetist is called to administer Epidural and I am looking forward to it. I ve never wanted anything so badly in my life. I scream with pain and I am also bleeding a lot due to all the internal examinations. The anaesthetist says I ve to hold still for a minute while he injects it in my spine but I am not able to. Who can hold still while they are going through excruciating pain? And by the way who lets men tell women in labour what to do? By this time, I am almost 8 cms dilated and they drop the Epidural idea and prepare for the delivery. I am shocked in my already shocked state. I threaten HD to get me epidural or I will kill myself. He shouts at the nurse but they say they can’t help it.

At 1.30 am, my water breaks and as it is green in colour; the doctor and the midwife are afraid the baby might be infected and ask the paediatrician to be present. I am too long gone to care. My bladder is full but I am not able to pee. I crawl to the toilet and sit there as long as possible but the midwife takes me back. I hit the stainless steel counter with my fist and my palm swells. I scream and move so much that the IV needle breaks and my left palm swells too. I call HD all sorts of names possible while he calmly asks me to breathe and says it will all be over soon and that I am doing good. I don’t care.

The next two hours are the most horrible hours of my life. I wish I could just die instead of going through this horror. Then I set my mind on pushing as pushing the baby out is the only way I am going to end all this torture. The baby’s head is visible and HD sees it. The midwife asks me if I want to touch the head and feel. I ask HD if I can pull her out! After some million pushes, biting HD's fingers to pulp and kicking the Doctor and the midwife simultaneously, the baby is out at 3.40 am! Did I bother to look? NO! Did I see tears in HD's eyes? YES! Is it a boy or a girl? GIRL!

HD cuts the cord and the paediatrician takes her away to examine while a new Doctor comes and stitches me up! I have a third degree tear and it is horrible! The doctor who delivered me says she has not seen anything like this! While I ask why they did nt do an Episiotomy, she says she did nt know it will be like this! I forgive her for the only reason that I peed on her face and she did nt mind!

HD calls family and friends. Everyone is surprised that it is a girl as each one of them had bet their last penny that it would be a boy. HD takes photos and the midwife takes a Polaroid picture of us. She says I have been really strong and she has not seen such a sweet and caring husband before! She says our baby girl is lucky to have parents like us. Even though she might say the same thing to every couple, we feel special! Then I am wheeled to my room where I would be for 5 more days with an icepack in my underwear and bleeding like hell.

The first thing I say to my baby girl is "Welcome to the family kiddo" with a wicked smile! Check out Ashu's first photo here.