Not pushed out, vomited out

by Odette

I was two weeks pregnant with my first child when I discovered that I was pregnant. I was engaged to be married to my husband when my mother bought the test for me as a present. The only symptom that I had at the time was leakage from the breasts, which I didn't pay attention to, however I was one week late with my period, but didn't think that I was pregnant, and put it down as stress because of the upcoming wedding and all the preparations that lay ahead. Anyway, the test came up immediately as positive. I was nervous and had to show my parents and future husband at the time.

My whole pregnancy went very smoothly. Except for the old wives tale of when you get a craving you heed it. Depending on what that craving is ALL PREGNANT WOMEN OUT THERE don't heed the cravings they could be very detrimental to you and your baby, because of my cravings I picked up about 30 extra kilo's and developed gestational diabetes which was quickly controlled by my food intake and monitoring of the food I ate.  The best way is to eat as healthy as possible and limit the sugar in take in all forms.

Beside this hiccup I had a really lovely pregnancy and believe it or not I didn't have any morning sickness or vomiting. During the first three months of the pregnancy I did have the usual form of tiredness and wanting to sleep a lot. I also had constipation, but that was all that I had.

I went into labour the morning of the 4 of February 2003 at 4am in the morning when my waters broke. I really wasn't prepared for that even after hearing it from my mother. It felt like a river coming out of me. Anyway my husband now, took me into the hospital where they immediately put me on a monitoring machine for contractions, as I wasn't having the contractions. At 9:30 that morning my Gyn advised the nurses to bring on the contractions by inducing me. At that point I then opted for the epidural as I had heard that labour pains could be bad, how much more so when you are being induced, so they called in for the epidural. Let me tell you that it was the best thing since sliced bread let me tell you that much. I didn't feel a thing.

The waiting period was the worst, I started dilating at 5pm that evening and finally gave birth, at 7:15, to a wonderfully, beautiful, healthy baby boy. But let me tell you this much the birthing wasn't a bed of roses, no, because of the epidural I was feeling very ill and instead of pushing the baby out I was vomiting, so the joke in the house now is that you weren't pushed out you were vomited out. After I gave birth to my son, my emotions ran very high and I just cried.

I tell you I vowed that I would definitively have another one and go the same route. What do you know; 20 months later I gave birth to a healthy baby girl at the same hospital, Chris Barnard Memorial Hospital in Cape Town and oh, let me tell you, that the staff there were the best.