When I had my first baby...

I’m here studying for my Ob/Gyn final exam, and I suddenly get the urge to write. I have accepted that my desire to blog is directly proportional to how stressed out I am about upcoming exams.

We’ve all heard it described as the Joy of Childbirth, the Miracle of Childbirth, and such glowing descriptions. Of course I was excited to have my own second-hand experience of this joy. It wasn’t to come till almost the third week of my rotation, I was on call and alas someone had gone to C/C (complete dilation of the cervix, OB speak for “we’re ready to push”) so I donned my gloves, held her legs and got ready to watch this miracle happen. Babies have this notorious wish to be born late at night or in the early hours of the morning, so I was yet to be part of a delivery. When I finally got my chance, to say I was disgusted would be an understatement.

What they don’t tell you when they tell you about the miracle of childbirth, is that with each push various bodily secretions including blood, urine and feaces are fair game. Every time she bore down, she pushed a big one out. Also she had hemorrhoids, and trust me, it wasn’t a pretty sight- definitely not the sight I wanted to be seeing my first time around.

While I was holding her leg, the thoughts going through my head was (in retrospect) just hilarious. See, at that time, I had decided that Ob/Gyn was going to be my specialty. So here I was, holding her leg, thinking to myself “are you really sure you want to do this for the rest of your life?”

So there and then, my desire for an elective Caesarian section was further strengthened, until I scrubbed in for my first c-section. Make no mistakes people, a c-section is actually major surgery. Don’t be fooled by the version you see on Discovery Health or Kendra. The way we were pushing, tugging and pulling the woman’s abdomen till we got the baby out, err…that was when I started thinking of surrogacy! Lol

Five vaginal deliveries and 3 c-sections later, I must say that my views have been slightly modified. I don’t see vaginal deliveries as nasty anymore. I saw some pretty neat ones. I saw a teenager push out a baby, and a couple of people deliver without epidurals. All in all, I’ve been touched by the miracle of childbirth. The truth is, childbirth is not easy either way. However, our bodies were created to accommodate it. The look on the mothers’ faces when we go in to see them hours later, is just priceless.

What I know is that when I’m doing so my husband better be standing beside me going through it with me. Don't even get me started on the analysis of the different fathers I've seen in the delivery room - the dotting father, the supportive husband, the omg-what-am-i-doing-here husband, the nervous teenage father, the i-dont-wanna-see-any-of-this-gross-stuff husband.

I truly believe there's something about the Labor and Delivery unit, or how else can I explain the extreme baby fever I felt for the past 2 months. I kept imagining myself pregnant, with a baby bump, during delivery....if you know ANYTHING about me, you'll know that I am extremely scared of childbirth! I felt very...err...fertile. I swear if a guy as much as sneezed on me during that period, it would have been a goal! o well, I think I'm over it now - or am I?

PS: contrary to the title of the post, I'm G0 P0 (never been pregnant, dont have a child )!