I’m from the islands and unfortunately we don’t have a hospital where I live so all pregnant women must fly to the city, by 32 weeks gestation, where the hospital is located. So I’m in the city, by myself, pregnant 🤦🏽‍♀️ I miss my man and I’m ready for baby to come 😩.

Fast forward to March 21st my boyfriend came and surprised me! Yay.

I’m due for clinic the next day and I’m at 38+3. My midwife and I agreed that we would perform a membrane sweep and whew boyyy did that hurt 😅 however luckily it takes about 10 seconds and you’re done. I was 2 cm dilated also at the time! So after the sweep I went on about my day. I had light spotting (which she told me to expect) which was actually mixed with amniotic fluid which we notice closer to giving birth and later that day I started having mild cramps. I ignored them because they felt like average period cramps. By dark fall I started having contractions and my boyfriend started to get freaked out 😅 but the contractions were still bearable.

I went to bed around 10 o’clock and around 2 am the contractions had intensified and had started coming closer together. By this time my boyfriend is really really freaking out (but im glad he’s there otherwise I would’ve been alone) and insist that I go to the hospital. Men 😆. I reassured him that I was okay and it wasn’t exactly time yet. So the contractions got stronger and i could no longer take the pain around 6 am so I finally went to the hospital.

This is where it gets interesting... Our public hospital is NOT the best.

So my boyfriend and I walk on down to the labor and maternity ward where we’re greeted by a pleasant security guard. She informs us that I can go in and register but my boyfriend cannot go any further. So my whole labor I was alone.

I go in and register and the nurses were so damn rude! The nurse literally said to me “I’ll get to you when I get to you” 🙄🙄 she didn’t even ask why I believed I was in labor or if there were any complications! Nothing. So an hour later they get around to me (they changed shifts so new nurses were on) they checked my cervix and I’m 2.5 cm dilated 🤦🏽‍♀️ what a bummer. They contemplated whether they would send me home or not due to them having insufficient beds 🙄. They decided against it and started running an iv line to give me something for the pain. Now I have to SIT in the ‘waiting area’ while I continue to labor. This is why I waited until I could not bare the pain to go to the hospital.

The doctor now calls me in this small shared exam room that’s separated by curtains. Privacy? Yea not happening 😅. She asks my medical history and what not. She checks my cervix again. I wish the pain of this is talked about more because that hurt at that time more than the contractions. Well anyway.. i’m 3 cm. It’s about 930 am at this time. They attached the fetal monitors to me.

Dr. decides around 1230 pm to get things moving along she would insert a balloon catheter. After she was done the pain got really intense. I was contracting this time lying on one of those hard uncomfortable examination beds 🤦🏽‍♀️. Fast forward to around 415 my dr checks my cervix again and im 6cm 🎉. That much closer to meeting my baby girl! About an hr later the dr gives me an enema and sends me to the bathroom where im instructed to sit on the toilet for another hour. So I do. Bathrooms not the cleanest but I put my pride aside. I update my boyfriend and my family and friends who didnt hear from me since I got the balloon catheter in. Once done with that they instruct you to take a shower. Contractions are steady coming but im showering like a champ through them.

I was gowned and FINALLY I got into an actual hospital bed. 8pm and 8cm dilated and IN PAIN 😅. The contraction pain from 2-7cm was now a walk in the park compared to this 😩. Time felt like it was moving backwards instead of forward where the pain was sooo bad. I groaned and groaned to my midwife to pleaseee get this baby out 😩. Around 9pm she checked my cervix and I was 9cm. 1cm to go? Oh no baby 😅😅. The pain got so bad til I vomited bile since I ate absolutely nothing that entire day and my bladder became incompetent during pregnancy so I peed the bed pad too 😅 no i drencheddd it. I was also in and out of consciousness this whole time. I was only conscious during contractions. Epidurals aren’t administered at the public hospital so i got some other pain medicine through an IV that honestly didn’t feel like it helped one bit.

Its 9:40 and im begging and pleading with my midwife to please get the baby out I really felt like i had to poop. She checked my cervix I was still at a 9 but she said she felt my baby’s head so if I really could not wait then we would begin. Music to my ears. She broke my water bag that had actually been leaking all day and instructed me on how to push and when and we got started. In 3 very easy and very quick pushes my baby girl had made her grand entrance at 10:04 pm. I literally only felt the pressure of her head coming out and after she just gushed out wailing.. Immediately after she came the pain instantly stopped and my body was riddled with the shakes. I had the shakes uncontrollably for about 5 minutes. They took my baby and weighed her and she was a perfect 6lbs. My Aalani Shalaya ❤️ 17 hours and 5 stitches all worth it.

Born March 23, 2019