If I talk about my pregnancy then those nine months were normal for me except for some common discomforts every pregnant woman faces during pregnancy. However, when it comes to thinking about the childbirth part I was really anxious that how will I deal with the labour pain and deliver a baby. Anxiety related to childbirth for a pregnant woman is as real as any other pregnancy problem and solution. Though, my situation might be a little bit different from some of the other pregnant women as being a nurse I have had my duty in labour room for one and half year and I had seen many natural as well as C-section or Cesarean birth deliveries.

In some way, it was an advantage for me that I was aware with the discomforts women face while delivering a baby but when I thought of some complications women had to go through during delivery that I had witnessed in my career, my anxiety and fear were no less than any other pregnant woman.

When I thought of labour pain and normal delivery, I was really scared that whether I would be able to deliver baby normally! What if I can’t and something goes wrong?!

And then finally I decided I will opt for cesarean delivery.

One more reason was that my doctor told me that my due date is in January which is around 1^st January and hence I decided to go for planned Cesarean birth on January 1^st so that every New Year doesn’t remain just calendar year but it  is a “New Year” in my baby’s life in true sense.

Though I have opted for planned Cesarean birth for my child, the knowledge I received through my education and labour room duty made me quite anxious as I was aware about the complications due to which doctor may advise for emergency Cesarean. Pregnancy problems and complications like umbilical cord getting twisted around baby’s neck, baby passing stool inside the mother’s body, heart beats of baby are slow or weak, mother has a high blood pressure during pregnancy (PIH – Pregnancy Induced Hypertension), baby is overweight and unable to come out naturally or if baby is transverse and earlier I was really worried what if any of these happened to me, will my baby be delivered safely? Luckily, everything went well and I was blessed with a cute baby girl.

After caesarean, I faced little bit difficulty in moving around as my stitches were paining. However, it was bearable pain in the beginning and then everything was normal after 8 days when stitches were removed. As my stitches were dry and there was no puss formation, they were removed after 8 days and I was the same active woman transformed into active and happy mother of my baby.

It has been more than 2 months but when I think about this I feel in cases of above mentioned complications the emergency caesarean section method plays an important role in saving a baby’s life. During my labour room duties, I often wonder how a mother can go through so many discomforts, complications and horrendous pain while delivering a baby but at the time of my delivery I felt that there is no discomfort for mother as for a woman her baby’s life is the most important thing and for that she’s ready to go through all pain and discomfort. It was MY CHOICE to opt for C-section childbirth for my baby and a way to make myself mentally and psychologically ready to deal with my anxiety and fears.

But, I would want to be clear, that I am not endorsing C-section birth here nor criticizing beautiful process of natural birth. Natural births are still a preferable option and should be opted in healthy conditions. I just did choose what seemed the best option to me back then.

When today I think of what discomforts I had during my delivery I hardly remember any of it, as at that point of time I was just thinking about safe birth of my baby and now my baby’s cute smile and her attics and mischief hardly spare me any time to think about all those could be-s and would be-s!

Contributed by A Mother of  3 months old cute baby girl and a Nurse in a Government Hospital

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