Charu's Labour and the Little Princess

Not even in my worst nightmares of Life , I had thought that I will not be there to hold my sister's baby on the First Day. Something I have never though would happen..

Now she is in Labour pain , I am here in a far off Land , sitting and typing this. I have always seen her as my little baby Doll. November 6 1995 , my mother was in her Labour for her second baby and it was my 5th birthday. Me and my sister share the same birthday :) I was 5 years old then and my little soulmate was born.

September 4 2020 :

Charu - my sister , GJ(Kiruba) - my sister's husband , Amma , Appa , Athai - Charu's Mother In Law , Charu's Father In Law , Aaya - my Grandmother and our dear Little Amudhan . Ofcourse on call support - me and my husband Vicky.

Thanks to the technology - Bigg Boss dialogue maadhiri - odavum mudiyadhu , oliyavum mudiyadhu - I was in video call during her entire Labour journey. So I have all the points to narrate the baby birth.

                                    A moment to be cherished for the entire Lifetime

                                                    Thats a pic before starting to hospital

The family was ready for the last check up on September 4 2020 morning 8 O clock. The hospital is 10 minutes drive from my home in Native - Cuddalore. We started and drove to the hospital. Dr.Kavitha Saravanan is the the Gynacologist , she checked Charu for the baby's head position and how much she is dilated. Good Signs , she is dilated to 0.5 cm and the baby's head position is fixed , a probable sign for a Vaginal Delivery (normal delivery). She was asked to go back home , with the point that she may get labour pain anytime from now. 

Charu , like every other mother is eagerly waiting to see her baby and I should definitely say - she is BOLD and BEAUTIFUL in handling the entire Pregnancy. She has given her best with Food and Exercise . stayed mentally calm throughout the 10 months , giving ample space for her baby.

Well , back to the Labour travel.. A mild pain has already started on the way back home. The sharp pain comes in a frequency of two hours. Charu is doing her 'Ball Exercises' periodically , to reduce the pressure on the pelvic bone during delivery. #InformedBirthing - A tag which is getting popular among young mothers  , where the Pregnant ladies are well informed on what is going on within their body.

The pain is starting to be a little severe and occurs every 2 hours. A relaxed seat on our Easy chair with legs stretched and with GJ giving a hot water massage around the lower pelvic to ease the pain.

Birthing Ball Exercise 

This guy needs a special mention - He has been a completely supportive person and has taken utmost care of his wife all through the Pregnancy journey. Not even a minute in these 10 months , he has left her alone. Infact more than half the pain and pleasure is carried by him , I would say.

                                                         Birthing Ball Exercise..

Duck Walk and Squats in between the pain to help the baby head fix and make its way out easily. Its not so easy to do them with the baby's pressure and the pain around the abdomen . it is not as easy as it is seeming. My little Son Amudhan is also very supportive for his Chithi. :P 

                                                Chithi doing duckwalk with Amudhan..

The day went with pains on and off and the lady tries all her strategies to ease the pain. She keeps herself calm , hydrated and mentally stable. The intensity and frequency of the pain increased little by little and is now occuring every 30 minutes. After a wholesome dinner and 'Vennai Thanni' - Hot water boiled with Butter to ease the baby move out easily , Mom to be takes a comforting hot water bath and tries to go for sleep. Well, now she has to be careful to note the baby's movement , water levels as the water should not break and also do something from her end for the baby's head to be fixed. With all this in mind , she tries to take a nap with her husband giving massage with the hot water bag the whole night. That night was not an easy one as the labour pain has started and continued to increase in a steady pace.

September 5 2020 : 

A fresh Morning - Hot Shower accompanied by a filling breakfast , the family is now ready to go to the hospital as the pain has shooted up over the last night and it is better to get admitted in the hospital.

Morning 7.25 AM : Entered the hospital but the Doctor is expected to come by 9 o clock only. The family has packed their breakfast , juice , milk and other food essentials if at all the expected Mom runs out of stamina. But more than the physical strength , it is the mental strength that is going us to  help her out in the next few hours. Charu's MIL - Athai - She is a blessing in disguise. She did not leave Charu's hand even for a single second. They both are walking in the varandah to relax as GJ and Appa has gone to the reception to check for the Entry and other details.

Well Charu is well acquainted with all the rooms and procedures now , as she had seen every step during Amudhan's birth 2.5 years back. And expert me - I had stuffed her mind with all the possible advice , suggestions , pointers - whatever you call into her brain.

COVID Times - Everyone should have their masks on. Amma is with Amudhan in the car parking as Amudhan might feel restless inside the hospital - moreover my Amma is not a strong person - Lets see how she took this labour scene to vera Level in the upcoming scenes

                                             The initial room for the dilation process..
.

Morning 9 AM: So the entry process is all done now , Doctor has checked for dilation and it is 2cm now , Charu is asked to change into her comfortable attire and the first step - Enima is given to clean the stomach . So now inside the Labour Room are GJ , Athai and my Appa to support the young lady. Appa will come into picture at the mid to last scenes of Labour , as of now GJ and Athai are handling her :P Ofcourse me in on call support ..!

A walk with Mother In Law in the hospital verandah..

                      In between contractions.. MIL gives hot water massage..Look at her confidence..

Well , from now on the story will move from the conversation point of me and my Amma through Whatsapp and it will take us through the entire Labour Travel.

Pain has started to a heavy state as the injection is given to increase the frequency and intensity of pain. However mentally and physically prepared we are , this pain will drive us crazy. I was seeing through the video call , GJ and athai also told , "This little girl did not even shed one drop of tear all through her pain and delivery - She has been so strong and bold - though at times , she has dropped down"

Hot Water Bag to the rescues in the beginning - Athai was giving a gentle massage to her back when the pain subsides . Let me explain how the labour pain will be! There will be a sharp , intense pain that runs through the back and the lower abdomen - this pain cannot be expressed in words - they are so worse that we would want to just remove the lower part of the body and keep it aside. This pain comes in a specific interval. As we sense a sharp pain for a few minutes , there will be few minutes where we will feel the entire body is so relaxed. 

GJ is such a supporting husband. I would say he is a kind of husband every girl will long to have - definitely not an exaggeration. He literally carried the entire labour pain and helped her go through the process. In between , he attends my video calls to show her and let me speak with her so that she gains some confidence.

My Dad is such a strong and bold person - he was inside the labour room before delivery for both me and charu helping us to deal with the pain.

Amidst all this where is my Amma.. :P She is busy texting me saying these.. Charu is a little girl , I cant see her suffer , I told  you guys we should have taken C Section , Now see how she is suffering , She cannot bear all this , Her nerves are going to break , I am going to kill you if something is not going to be fine , After going through such terrific pain if she needs to go through C Section - what to do , I am going to call the doctor , I am going to ask the doctor to proceed with C Section .. bla bla bla.. Are you wondering what is all this - These are the text and voice messages that my Amma has sent me in Whatsapp when Charu was going through her Labour pains and processses. Literally I was dealing with my Amma convincing her , Charu is capable of handling the 'Normal Delivery' process and pains and was giving all the hopes that I can.

Well my Amma has gone out of her limits , she walks inside the room and says ,

Amma : See , She cant bear the pain.. I told you all before itself , She cant bear this much pain... bla bla

Appa : Can you please go out for sometime , we will handle this..

Charu : When she sees my mother alone , she becomes extra cautious and nervous - "Amma , call the doctor , I cant bear the pain".. After my Amma comes out , she starts to cope up with the pain. :P 

Well now I decided , I should keep my Mom occupied with one thing or another till the labour process is done , otherwise she would go and ask the Doctor to proceed with C Section. I called my dear friend Divya and asked her to keep my Amma occupied for a while so that she is diverted. Its not so easy for mothers to see their daughters to suffer in such a pain , screaming out asking for help. I definitely understand my Amma's feeling but I was also very cautious that it should be a smooth and a normal delivery for Charu. I told my Appa to not allow Mom inside the labour room till the litte one arrives. !!

Come let us go through my Whatsapp conversation with my Mom and travel through the Labour journey.

Click on the image to enlarge - so that it is easy to read..!!

                                       

                                          

Meanwhile GJ and Athai are supporting Charu to handle her pain and she is 7 cm dilated now. GJ is also a bold person , he is seeing her suffer and shout in pain but is calm and composed to handle everything. A gentle massage over the back and warm press over the palm is the need of the hour. He has been doing this for the last 4 hours now. 

The pain has gone very intense now. Charu has not taken any epidural injection. She is trying her level best to bear with the pain , implementing all her strategies. But in my Mom's words , she is not co-operating :P  Charu is having a natural dilation now. All the tips and nutrients tried by mother is working out perfectly for Charu also. There are a lot of Kashayams and other food stuffs that are exclusively prepared by my Mom during the Pregnancy time to ease the Labour pain and the proceeses. It is seeming to work perfect now. 

As the pain is increasing , nurses check her periodically for the dilation level and baby's heart beat. The pain is at its peak now and everyone are in action supporting her balance the pain. She becomes physically tired but she is mentally strong to take the natural birth process. Doctor comes to check the dilation and now she is ready for the delivery , dilated enough. Doctor asks her to go to the washroom and walk to the labour room. 

She walks confidently inside the labour room now. Actually only when she is dilated enough , she will be shifted from the initial room to the Labour room. Later during our discussions , my Mom told , when she walked to the Labour room , she turned to my Mother and gave a confident Smile. 

Kiruba is such a sweet husband , every minute he stands by his promise 'I will stand by you in  your difficult times'.. He is allowed inside the Delivery Room as my sister has asked permission from the Doctor before itself. My Dad was standing outside the first door and my Mom and her Mother In Law were standing outside the second door. 

                                         

Meanwhile where is Amudhan.. ? ? My Mom has sent him to our house and brought all our neighbour boys to play with him . I was in video call with my Grandma and talking to her , explanining the situation at hospital. She is another awesome lady. My Mom being a Working-Mom , my Grandma was the one who took complete care of me and Charu.

                                   

Back to the scenes now..! Charu is completely aware of the birthing process and the room is all set to welcome the little one. Some comedy scenes in between. Everyone is ready inside now. The doctor told to inform her during pain and she should start pushing. If it becomes late , baby will go into critical stage. And if she pushes and leaves in between , baby's head will be stuck. Doctor has asked Charu to hold her legs using her Hands right up , as she was holding Kiruba's hands,  it seems she had told , I would not be able to hold it , better hang them using a support. Kiruba was trying to peep into what the doctor was trying to do for which the Doctor replied..."Thambi.. inga lam paaka koodadhu , ava thala kitta dhan irukanum .. :P "  These both are trying to recreate a cinematic scene I guess.. :P

Kiruba gives confidence saying , you have crossed a lot of pain now and this is the last point , please do it baby.

Push Push Push - is the thaaraga mandhiram. She tried to push for the first time giving some smirky sound. Doctor replied "Enna ma sound mattum dhan varudhu , inga onnum nadakalaye".. Now for the second push she is putting her fullest effort .Doctor says , Dont Leave , Push continuosly ,  A little More ..A nurse comes to support her pushing her over the belly. As she pushes second time , baby's head is visible and she gets the fullest confidence that she can do it this time. 

Here she comes .. The Princess.. Charu has seen that it is a girl baby when the doctor took the baby out. Kiruba says "Namma aasa patta maadhiriye ponnu di".. Doctor says .. Girl Baby - 2.15 PM..

He came out immediately to inform and I got an instant message in whatsapp.. Wow, what a feeling.. this feeling could not match anything in the world. I have got a new partner for Life. Girl Babies are mother's friend for lifetime.                                  

                                       

They wiped the baby and meanwhile there were after birth processes going on. Doctor goes on with stitching processes.

"Girl Baby - Normal" is the message that I received from my Mother , from that moment Video Call sessions started.. :) Baby is so charming and bubbly with curly hair.. :) is the hot information that I received. The baby has latched instantly to breastfeed. Charu was so determined that she has to feed the baby in first 30 minutes - The Liquid Gold.

                    Dad carries the Little Princess

Baby and Mother was transferred to the room and happily ever after series started....!!!