My Birthing Experience at Latifa Hospital

Hello. Its been a while again, I guess. I thought of updating my blog for the longest time, but it was difficult to juggle work and home with two bundle of joy now. Yes, you heard it right. I now have a boy. I believe that the essence of being a woman has been fulfilled already. A girl and a boy. So I already told my Far-ouT that 2 is already perfect for our family. Although he expressed his desire to have another one in the near future. Near future is like 2 years from now since I am not getting younger at 36. But I want to stand my ground this time. Going through nine months of pregnancy and giving birth without the intervention of epidural is really not my cup of tea. Don't get me wrong, I feel that I am born to be a mother at some point because I barely had problems being pregnant, no complications whatsoever, no weight gain and stretch marks are my perks as well. So apart from the morning sickness for almost 2 months, I get along fine during my pregnancy. 

My struggle though is eating. I love to eat and became my frustration while pregnant. I don't have much of a choice with food, we all want me to eat healthy and avoid the ones that may harm my baby which of course is what is best. I also have a theory that most family have 3 children because they all try to have a boy and a girl or a girl and a boy combination. So if they bear 2 girls consecutively, they will try for a third one hoping for a boy and vise versa. Do you get my point? Since we were blessed with a girl and boy now, it is time for us to keep the family of 4. At least that is what I keep telling Far-ouT. He is not yet convince since both of us came from a family with other 2 other siblings.  I am keeping my options open though,, the pain I went through is still fresh on my mind. By the way, if you keep on reading below,  I am writing something about my delivery at Latifa, as I felt it is my duty to give details since I had problems searching for reviews online about it. 

I am at 2 months postpartum recovery already and I would say it was not an easy one. I am guessing I had the baby blues. My mini-ME is 6 years apart from our new bundle of joy, so imagine the gap of my 2 kids, that I barely had any memories of my first pregnancy. I kept on comparing both (my pregnancies), and I feel that this pregnancy is harder than the first one. Few days after delivery, I was having a hard time walking, I feel something is pulling down there. I was nursing a second degree tear, and as a self proclaimed born worrier, I was worried of the stitches that might fall off and opening up the wound. I struggle on my own because of this unnecessary paranoia. I was not given a clear instruction on when to see a Doctor for a follow-up check-up so I already seen a  Doctor in a private hospital instead to check on my condition and Thank God everything was fine.

Giving birth at Latifa was pretty straight forward, something that was not for me so I guess my delivery was not a easy one for me. As further discussed on my previous blog entry, during the early stage of my pregnancy, I was seeing an OB at a local government hospital and I was only transferred at Latifa at almost 7 months already. The people at Latifa are experts on their field, no doubt, make sure you take note of your records as well though, on several occasion of my check-ups, different people asked the same questions so its best to keep a record of your own, I was already having difficulty remembering some of the details during the latter part of my pregnancy. 

Anyway, moving forward, I am already having the contractions in the morning of November 4, so I already called Far-ouT who  is also scheduled to paddle in our Dragon boat race. I arrived at Latifa around 7ish and 5 cms dilated already. As usual, I get the same questions while on labor. They sent me directly to the labor room after checking. I was already very much in pain and a nurse-midwife Filipina was the one available during that time and was also the one who attended the delivery of my baby boy. During the interval, she told me she will not give me any more of the epidural since I will gave birth anytime soon. I can't help but give out a scream every time I feel the pain.  When it was time to push, I gave 4 with a failed one that almost stopped Uno from coming out. Good thing, I was conscious and gave a big final push on the fourth one. I was instantly relieved right after he came out.  That was the most painful experience of my life and so I thought, as I mentioned earlier, I had a tear and would need to stitch me up. The nurse-midwife Filipina was not allowed to do the procedure and called a obstetrician to do the necessary. I guess the cleaning of the perineal area before  stitching up the tear was more painful than the labor pain and actual delivery so brace yourself. After she finished, I was brought to the recovery room with four other patients, I just could not rest with all the noise around so I requested to be transferred to a private room but unfortunately, none was available. I just had to bear it for a night anyway. With little sleep, my mother and I still waited until late afternoon the following day  to check-out of the hospital.

The healing of my second degree tear was also frustrating as it took me 4 weeks to fully recovered but the difficult part was, I don't know who to contact in times when I have questions and feeling that something was not right. But I realized that I only worry too much as after my recovery, everything was fine. 

Our little bundle of joy is doing great as well. He already had several of the vaccine in Mankhool government clinic and the best part is, its all for free.

Hope this helps! All the best,