Malady to melody

I am posted in labor room for the time being. Although I have assisted more than 50 deliveries during my student life, I haven’t conducted one. My chance to do one came two days back.

I was in charge of her. Let’s call her Rose. So I was monitoring Rose for more than 4 hours. Her belly is enlarged, as if she had swallowed a large water melon and obviously she is in distress. She cries out with pain when the contractions come. When she cries out I go near her and examines her vagina for signs of impeding delivery. After sometime her screams reached a crescendo, baby’s head was stretching her vagina. We shifted her to the stage II room, where we conduct delivery.

She was still screaming. Although she had been given an enema earlier to evacuate her bowels, she passed little bit of stool. I was chosen to conduct the labor. I was bit nervous, the senior PG was nearby. Anyway I can’t show that to Rose, so I put up a confident face and asked her to move down on the cot.

I gave her an injection of local anesthesia near her vagina and put an incision over that area (episiotomy). She was in great pain. We asked her to strain more. Yep, the baby came out. It’s a boy and he cried immediately. In a moment Rose’s pain was gone and she smiled, tears came down her face. After cutting the umbilical cord, we brought the baby to her. Rose kissed her child and we all smiled.

It was a great relief. So my first labor had a happy ending.
After seeing all the struggles though which a women goes in the process of giving birth to a child, my respect to my mother increased.

I salute all mothers.