How To NOT Give Birth Inside A Taxi

I have heard and written down hundreds of labor stories from pregnant women rushing to the hospital for delivery and witnessed strenuous labors to easy breezy ones. I wondered which among those stories I jotted down would eventually happen to me. Being someone who only had a toothache to consider as a severe form of physical pain, I can only imagine how labor pain would be like. Some of those I interviewed back in my hospital days said it started as a menstrual cramp-like pain on the hypogastric area that creeps to the upper abdomen, others describe it as a low back pain radiating to the hypogastric area. I carefully watched out for those signs including a possible leaking of the bag of water (amniotic fluid) or a bloody show. Unfortunately, I forgot that not everything happens according to what is exactly written on the OB-GYN book. 

My last prenatal exam on my 38th week showed a tightly closed cervix. With the absence of other possible labor signs, I let my 39th week prenatal exam pass predicting that my baby would reach up to 40 weeks since it's my first pregnancy. Now I learned not to miss any single prenatal exam in my future pregnancies. Hahaha! 

Jabar and I went to bed at around 11:00 pm on Thursday, August 20, my 39th week and four days of pregnancy, when I felt a faint and irregular menstrual cramp-like pain on my lower abdomen. I already knew it could be the beginning of labor pain but since I'm a primigravida (first pregnancy), I calculated the time my cervix would thin out and fully dilated to reach 8 hours or more. Although I didn't get to sleep through the night, the pain was still tolerable. I imagine labor pain to be crazy and intolerable. I told my husband about it at around 5:00 am when he woke up for fajr. According to my calculation (hahaha!), we'd go to the hospital at around 8:00 am so he could still go to the office to ask for a leave. When everyone at home (yes! my parents, mom-in-law, and sis-in-law were here!) woke up at around 5:30 am, I coolly announced my abdominal pain. My mom and mom-in-law panicked! I laughed and told them to calm down because it is still tolerable. Perhaps, I will give birth in the afternoon or tonight, I told them. Had I only known what would happen later, I would have rushed to the hospital right away. Ugh. Anyway, my mom grabbed the herbs she brought all the way from Marawi (they stayed fresh because she replanted them as soon as they arrived here in Bangkok) and made a liquid concoction out of it. She called those herbs as "Meranao inducers". Haha! I never thought my mom pala has panday (local midwife) skills. Thinking perhaps it wouldn't hurt to follow my mom, I drank the minty-tasted herbal concoction in one gulp. At around 6:00 am, I asked my husband to accompany me to the 34th floor, the garden floor, so I can walk around. When we arrived there, it didn't take 10 minutes when I felt the pain intensified and the contraction became regular. I told my husband that we need to go to the hospital ASAP. It took me 30 minutes to take a bath and prettify myself because my concern was to look pretty on my first photo with my baby! Hahaha! Ayun tuloy.

The view from the 34th floor, the garden floor, of the building where we live. Imagine nakuha ko pang kumuha ng litrato habang nagcocontract ang tiyan ko? Hehe. 

We were in the taxi at around 7:00 am with my father accompanying us to the hospital. Since Jabar and I are not usually affected by rush hours, it completely slipped our minds that traffic is heavily built in Bangkok at this hour! Without the traffic, Bumrungrad Hospital is less than ten minutes away from where we live via taxi if it goes straight ahead of Sukhumvit road, which is the shortest route. I have no idea what went inside the taxi driver's mind who swerved right to the wider but more congested Asok road instead of driving straight ahead! He was trying to explain to my husband in broken English that he was expecting a less congested road since it is wider, but he was so wrong!

When we were not moving for more than 30 minutes, I started fidgeting in pain inside the taxi! I feel like the pain intensifies every time I see the red traffic lights, the buses on our both sides, and still we're not moving an inch! I was imagining myself walking along the hospital hallways or squatting inside the labor room while my husband massages my lower back to relieve the pain but with this traffic, it is far away from happening! I started to whimper while my dad beside me tried to console me by reminding me to recite La ilaaha ilallah Muhammad ar rasuulullah  (there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger). I tried to remember the techniques in managing labor pains taught in the antenatal class but none of those can be performed conveniently at the back of a taxi stuck in a freaking traffic. I remember one position that I can do, I started placing both of my knees and my hands up on the seat while my father hugs me on my shoulder so I won't slide down when the taxi moves.  

An hour passed and we were still stuck in the carmageddon and I was still on all fours screaming in pain!!! The only possible way we can get to the hospital faster were 1.) we take the famous Bangkok motorcycles, or 2.) we go against the traffic!! The two gentlemen with me asked if I can climb at the back of the motorcycle and I answered with a roaring NO!! So they resorted to the latter option and the next thing I knew, they were both screaming at the driver to go against the traffic and explain later to traffic enforcers that it is an urgent matter that they would surely understand. It took them another thirty minutes arguing since Mr. Goody-Goody Driver did not want to be caught violating traffic rules. I wanted to join yelling at the driver, no, I wanted to curse him so bad and blame him for changing route when we should be in the hospital by now but karma managed to insert in my thoughts thinking I might have difficulty delivering my baby if I hurt this poor taxi driver. The pressure he's getting from my father and my husband is more than enough. In retrospect, I admired him for showing such discipline in adhering to the law. He instead called what we guessed the traffic control center which alerted a certain radio station and all the traffic enforcers in the Asok area to allow our taxi to pass amidst the heavy traffic. The next thing I knew while I was on fours was we were speeding our way to the hospital as if all cars on the road disappeared! I lifted my head to see all the cars making way for us while traffic enforcers waving red flags directing the way to the hospital. We just made a scene amidst the heavy Bangkok traffic!! When we arrived at Bumrungrad, emergency personnel were already waiting for us immediately laid me on a gurney all the way to the delivery room. At that point, I had no idea where my father and husband were. All I wanted was to bear down to relieve the pain.

At the delivery room, the nurse did an internal exam and she said my cervix was already fully dilated. No wonder I started pushing the baby out but they were stopping me because my OB was not yet around! No one's gonna catch my baby if I continue to bear down. The nurses let me lie on my side and a few minutes later, a resident physician arrived apologizing in behalf of my OB because she was also stuck in the traffic on her way to the hospital! UGH, Bangkok traffic!!! The resident physician then placed my legs on lithotomy position and gave me the go signal to start bearing down. I then heard my husband beside me instructing me to breathe the way we practiced it at home. As I closed my eyes, all the voices surrounding me seemed to fade. I only listened to my body as it tells me to push longer every time I feel the urge. I rest in between and then push again. On my third push, I heard my baby crying as the pediatrician was wiping a dry cloth on her. When she was placed on my chest, all the pain I felt few minutes ago went away. At 9:06 am, August 21, on a Friday, a healthy baby girl just made her way to the world. :)

So the answer to the question imposed on the title of this entry is: when you're expecting, please rush to the hospital as soon as you feel abdominal pain whether it is tolerable or not, and, never ever miss any appointment with your OB especially on the last trimester.

At the delivery room an hour after I gave birth. 

Sharing here with you our first family photo on the delivery bed while the resident physician is doing an episiorrhaphy on me. Haha! Except for my edematous face and a rubbed down lipstick, my wish to look quite good on our first family photo was granted. Kaya kami natagalan umalis ng bahay dahil sa pagpapaganda e. Ayan. Hahaha! Oh well.      

                           

Alhamdulillah, all praises belong to Allah. It was a relatively easy delivery except for the inconvenient laboring inside a taxi. Now I realize how high my threshold of tolerance for pain is. I was still smiling and laughing when we were leaving home. It was the traffic that really stressed me out leading to a fast dilatation of my cervix. Or perhaps, the herbal concoction that my mom made me drink? I don't know. When Allah decrees something, no one can stop it from happening. I can only be grateful that I didn't give birth inside the taxi, otherwise, I don't know what would happen to my father and to my husband! Hahahaha!