Aziz's Birth Story
I went into labor with Aziz the night before his due date, again at
9pm. Early labor was about the same as it was with Kai. Again, I
took my bath and then worked on my cross stitch. This time Kindra (my sister and doula) and
mom were both there with me and Payam. In the morning I played with
Kai and had breakfast. Then I went to the bathroom and on the way out
I crouched down on my bed to deal with a contraction and heard a
popping noise, followed by a gush of liquid. I called everybody and
told them I thought my water broke. I called my doctor and she said
she'd be in surgery most of the morning so may or may not make the
birth. I sighed and turned that one over to God. Then we all climbed
into the car and headed to the hospital.
I was still in early labor and the contractions weren't real intense
yet so the drive was a lot easier. I talked a lot to Kai about what
was happening until we got to the hospital. This time I had to go to
triage and only Payam could come with me. They hooked me up to the
monitors and it seemed like it took forever for them to check me in.
I was only a couple of centimeters dilated so nobody was in a rush,
but as my water had broken they didn't send me home. Finally, they
let me rejoin my family in the waiting room, where we hung out for a
couple of hours. Someone gave Kai a toy train set so I paced around,
talking with everyone and watching him play. Kindra took him to look
at the babies in the nursery and explained that no, none of those
babies was mommy's baby. We chatted with a couple who were waiting
for their daughter to deliver. They said she was at 8cm and it should
be soon. Just then they said my room was ready so we wished them luck
and went to hang out in the room.
The nurse was really busy and had a number of women delivering at the
same time so she pretty much left us alone when I made it clear that I
really wanted to do it my way. Kai got tired so his uncle picked him
up and took him home for a nap. After he left, the contractions
started getting really intense and I could feel that I was entering
transition. This time the pain was more in my abdomen than my back so
the hip squeeze trick didn't work as well. I found that the most
comfortable position was up on my hands and knees.
The nurse came in and I told her that I felt like I was getting close.
She checked and said I was at 7cm. I told her please call my doctor
and she said I still had a ways to go. I didn't feel like talking
anymore but I didn't need to because Kindra and mom were great
advocates. They told her that babies always come fast in our family
and she really needed to call the doctor. Reluctantly, she went to
the phone and called her but told her "Well, the family seems to think
she's getting close but she's only 7cm." Then she told us that if it
was getting close she'd better finish up the paperwork. That ticked
me off but I was too focused on the contractions to really care so I
just ignored them and tried to focus on my prayers and not worry about
whether or not my doctor would show up. Payam left to call the doctor
himself because he knew it was adding to the stress and I retreated
into my prayers and tried to leave the medical stress in His hands.
While Payam was in the hall calling the doctor I felt like I needed to
push. Mom and Kindra started getting nervous and one of them poked
her head out of the door and yelled "uh, she's pushing. Could SOMEONE
come in here?" Payam ran back in and a different nurse came in.
Fortunately, she was a lot better than the first nurse. She checked
me and said I was ready to push and told me that she was going to call
a doctor in. I was panting at this point to stop from pushing and
told her I wanted my doctor. She was really reassuring and told me my
baby wasn't going to wait and that I had this anyway. So I took a
deep breath and said fine and they called a doctor out of the hall. A
man came in and introduced himself to my backside and then said "can
you turn over?" (I was still on my hands and knees) I was too busy
panting to answer him so the nurse answered for me. She said, "No,
she can't and you can deliver the baby just like that." Then she told
me to go ahead and push.
I was afraid of how much that was going to hurt so I gave a couple of
really tentative half pushes. Then I thought, OK God, I know I have
to do it so please give me the strength and let's do this. Then I
gave a strong push and to my utter amazement I felt the entire baby
fly out just like that. The doctor had just turned around from
putting on his gloves and had to jump to catch the baby. (Kindra
ended up scooping up his body because the doctor barely managed to get
his hands on his head.) I flipped over and tried to recover from the
shock that A) it was over already and B) pushing barely even hurt!
Then I realized that there was a problem.
Aziz wasn't breathing. The doctor didn't seem to notice this as he
was busy pulling on the cord to extract the placenta. I started
saying, "my baby, my baby, he's not breathing!" and Kindra started
yelling at everyone. Finally, they patted him a bit and he woke up.
Apparently, the problem was that he was born asleep and they needed to
wake him up so he could start breathing. Anyway, he was fine and I
felt unbelievably great, but a little shaken. Nobody had taken a
heart rate during the entire delivery. My doctor finally showed up
about half an hour after the birth and I was so annoyed with her I
could barely manage to be polite. I didn't care, anyway. I just
wanted to cuddle my baby and thank God and my family because at least
they were paying attention. The nurse (the saving grace to the
otherwise shoddy service I received that day) looked me in the eye and
said "you know, you're one of those women who would be much better off
at home." I truly think Aziz's delivery would have been safer at home
because at least a medical professional would have been paying
attention. Lucky for us, we really didn't need much help as it turned
out.
I wanted to get out of there and get home so I could take care of my
baby and see Kai as soon as possible. 8 hours later, Payam had
successfully navigated the hospital and we were heading home. On our
way out, we saw the same couple in the waiting room. We asked how
their daughter was doing and they said she was still pushing. I
thought, well that's why we need hospitals, for those less fortunate
than me and I swallowed my annoyance and headed home with my darlings.
A few years later, I learned that the doctor who stepped in to deliver
Aziz was on the board of directors at Kai's school. We were working a
booth together when I recognized his name from Aziz's birth
certificate (I had never really seen his face.) I told him he had
delivered my son and he studied me for a minute and said "Oh! You're
the one who delivered on her hands and knees!" Surprised, I said "Uh,
yeah, but THE one. You mean you've never had anyone else do that?"
He laughed and said no, that it was very unusual. I found the
conversation odd because I don't think it's unusual at all in natural
birth and I actually think it's highly preferable. Aziz's birth was
definitely the easiest and I think the position had a lot to do with
that.
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