Bad Experiences during Delivery - Part 1

I had always thought that giving birth is a very 'challenging' process a mother must undergo. And my current experiences had further strengthened my notion in this aspect. Blame it on bad luck or poor preparation, I had never thought that I would face more challenging situations than normal birthing experience.

In my opinion, my encounters right before, during and after labour is something too challenging for me that I would like to share with all my friends so that in future, they would not ended up having the same experiences as I had. However, I hope you don't mind that I am not too specific in certain details as I would not want to invite any legal issues.


So I'll start with the story of my first admission into a local private Hospital. The day before my EDD (estimated due date for delivery), I started having periodical contractions. On the morning of the EDD itself, I woke up with my panty all wet. As I was not sure whether it is my amniotic fluid or sweat, I phoned the Hospital's hotline and asked the nurse at the other end of line for an assessment of the situation. After listening to my explaination of the whole situation, she strongly urged me to go to the Hospital for a brief checkup to be sure. As my instinct told me that the possibility of going into labour that day might not be high, I was a bit reluctant. However, the nurse keep on urging me to go, giving me the assurance that the Hospital charge will be less than $100 if it is a false alarm; So why not just go in and have a quick check?

Thinking that it doesn't cost much just to have a check, so I admit myself into the Hospital at around 10am. I was sent to the labour ward immediately for checkup. After preparation, I was hooked up to the CTG machine (to monitor my contractions and baby's heartbeats) by an attending nurse. Then she told me she would like to conduct a cervical check to see whether my bag has broken. Without any further explaination, she just pushed her fingers into me. As I do not understand what she had meant by cervical examination as this is my first birth, and I thought it is similar to the gynae checkups that I had before; I was caught by surprise when her action caused me quite some pain. As a result I moaned out quite loud as I was unprepared mentally.

Just at that moment, the nurse stopped and exclaimed that she will not continue with that checkup and I need to wait for my Gynae to come in for assessment. However after waiting for two hours and the Gynae still haven't show up, I requested for discharge as I am very sure that I won't be in labour that day. How do I know? Because the CTG showed that my contractions were not distinct, irregular and having long gaps in between. However, the nurse does not allow me as I could only be released upon my gynae's approval (by this time it is another nurse as they changed shifts at around 11am).

At around 1pm, I was transferred to postnatal ward while waiting for my gynae to come. I had to skipped my lunch as the Hospital didn't prepared my lunch. I was hungry and tired. I was surprised as how could a premium private hospital specialised in delivery allow it's pregnant patients go hungry? However, my numerous requests for discharge were being turned down again and again as long as the Gynae didn't approve.

Finally the Gynae showed up in shirt and tracksuit at around 5pm. Fancy me waiting for her since 10am in the morning! What if I was really in labour? She did a quick check of my cervix and I only felt a bit uncomfortable, not as intense as the pain caused by the nurse in the morning. The result : My amniotic bag was still intact, so no sign of labour yet. Straightaway, she told the attending nurse not to hold up the patient similar to my case in future and to prepare for my discharge See, this is what I had been telling the nurses whole day! The Gynae also claimed that the nurse told her that I did not allow the nurse to examine my cervix or else I could have straight away been discharged. Holy God! When did I said that? What I had done was just some moans!!!

To cut a long story short, in the end I was discharged at around 8pm after fruitless waiting the whole day doing nothing much. And here's the best part ; My bill came to more than 8 times the expected amount! This hospital is indeed PREMIUM ....

Well don't you agree with me if I say that the service of this Hospital is unacceptable? But you'll be even more surprised when I tell you my actual day delivery experiences in PART 2. It was even more horrid.