The 24 hours before I became a Mama

My Birth Story (Part 1)

It all started on January 31st around 2pm. I had an induction scheduled. It began with a foley catheter being placed inside my cervix to get it ready for birth. It’s to help dilate the cervix a couple of centimeters. They told me it would be unpleasant going in, but I probably wouldn’t feel it afterwards. They were wrong. I definitely felt a bit uncomfortable, but then it was followed by immediate severe cramping. That cramping just kept getting worse for me. I had Braxton-Hick’s contractions (aka practice contractions) right away which was followed by severe cramping, which just wouldn’t stop. It eventually eased a little as I walked out of the hospital but came back later that evening around 8pm.

At 8pm, it definitely felt like labour pains. I tried to handle the pain the best I could while using the contraction tracker app (paid version, the unpaid version was just annoying unfortunately). My contractions were very inconsistent but at one point it did say to go to the hospital. I called the labour and delivery department, and they told me that’s how the catheter is and to wait it out. So, I waited in terrible waves of pain, which my husband helped me with by providing me with “counter pressure”. Counter pressure is when you put pressure on a different area of your body to help distract you from the main pain that you’re experiencing. Since I was having contractions, I felt that I needed someone to push down on my hips. I can’t describe why I needed it there, I guess my body told me. So, I listened and asked my husband it push down there as hard as he could. It actually was the only way I could get through that pain, but husband’s wrists were not happy.

The pain eventually stopped around 10:30pm. I couldn’t believe how much better I felt! I started cleaning, doing laundry, just getting last minute things in place. I decided to go to bed around 11:30pm after a nice warm shower. During the night around 2am, I got up to pee as you do when you’re just over 9 months pregnant. But. Something felt off when I wiped. It felt slimy! I knew I couldn’t go back to sleep or keep the bathroom as pitch dark as I had it. I turned on the lights, and the tissue I dropped in the toilet was bright red. Blood, a lot of blood. I figured it must be bloody show or something which is one of the things I was told to go to the hospital about. Up until that point I had never seen a drop of blood throughout my pregnancy.

I woke up my husband immediately, and called the hospital to check if I should come in. They told me that it’s probably not a big deal, but I can come in if I wanted to. I definitely wanted to go the safe route. My husband had already packed our hospital bags, but I packed my last-minute items and we headed out into the cold February night. My husband drove carefully over the fresh white snow, which was falling gracefully from the dark sky. We pulled up in front of the regular entrance of the hospital only to see that the doors were locked. The regular entrance wasn’t open past a certain time. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what that certain time was. I turned around and walked back to the car. We decided to go to the Emergency Entrance.

At the Emergency Entrance, the bald in uniform officer sitting at the desk asked me why I came to the hospital today. I told him about the blood and the foley catheter between my legs. He asked me to take a seat, and I told him I should probably be in labour and delivery and he said he would check and to have a seat anyway. I did as I was asked, and waited in the triage line. There was only one other person in front of me. When I was asked to come sit in the triage office, I told them that I was pregnant and about the blood, and that I should probably be in labour and delivery. They asked me how far along I was, and I told them 39 weeks. Her eyes widened, as she immediately called the labour and delivery department. The labour and delivery nurse who answered the phone asked the triage person to bring me up to the labour and delivery floor right away. The hospital’s porter put me in a wheelchair and took me up in the nearest elevator. I told her that I wasn’t experiencing any pain just the blood was troubling. She asked if I was wearing a pad, and I confirmed that I was.

Once on the labour and delivery floor, the nurse there asked me all of the questions I was asked all over again. She told me she would check me and to remove my sweatpants and underwear, and cover myself with the provided bed sheet on the hospital bed in a rather large, private room. She informed me, this would be the room I would give birth in the next day. I was pleasantly surprised with the size and set up, as I followed the nurse’s instructions. I laid on the hospital bed ready to go and the nurse soon entered to check my cervix and the foley catheter. She told me the catheter was pretty much already out and she asked if I was okay with her taking it out since it had already done its job. Of course, I was so glad to be rid of it and I agreed. She popped it out super easily and I was so glad it was finally gone!

The nurse and her assistant checked my cervix and found that the blood was just from the “trauma” of the Foley Catheter. I was a little alarmed by that, but the nurse assured me that it’s fine and to just wear a pad for the rest of the night and get some rest. By that time, it was almost 4am and I had to be back at the hospital by 7am or 7:30am. I knew not much rest was going to be had, but I also knew I would need to save my strength for the scary and stressful day that was to come. As soon as I was dressed, I was free to go so I met with my husband by the hospital’s regular front entrance, and we drove home for a couple more hours of rest.

Written by: Shenika