I am Vincent, and I have just returned from Thomson Medical Centre (TMC), after a long, tough 23 hours for Catherine’s delivery.

After being inserted with the first pill for her induction, she started having mild contractions from 8pm+ on Monday. The contractions got stronger for some time, before becoming weaker again at around 10pm. Her parents then drove us to the hospital at 10.30pm, so that we could reach there at approximately 11pm, the cut-off timing for the ‘next day’ in TMC.

Once we were there though, there were already people waiting in queue for admission. I tried approaching the labour ward nurses if Cat could be warded first, but was asked to go back to the admission counter for registration, though our doctor Adelina Wong already gave instructions for the nurses to check her dilation first.

Anyway, after waiting for close to an hour, it was finally our turn to register, and she was warded to a normal ward for observation, instead of those observation wards in the labour ward.

Once she was there, she settled down and I was reminded by the staff nurse to leave the 2-bedded ward soon as there was another patient beside us. Nevertheless, I wanted to stay by Cat’s side, who was starting to feel pain from the contractions. So I ignored the staff nurse’s request, communicated politely to the lady on the opposite bed that I would be staying back, and she had no objection.

So throughout the night, I accompanied her, and stayed awake as she could not sleep peacefully with her contractions. At around 2am+, she was feeling water trickling from her birth canal, and we suspected that the water bag had burst. We waited for the third trickling sensation before informing the staff nurse. However, we were disappointed that she told us to continue waiting in our ward instead of being transferred to the labour ward, reason being that she should at least consume her light breakfast at 7am before heading down.

Though we were unhappy with the decision then, we soon understood why: Cat’s dilation was still around 1 to 2 cm at around 7am, and no food intake was allowed.

When she got admitted to the labour ward at 7.15am, she was wheel chaired to Observation Ward 3, and I was disallowed from entering. So I could only stay outside and wait, and I asked the nurses on several occassions to enter but was not granted, the last incident being that she was already in the restroom after her enema. I was then told to wait in the waiting lounge and wait for the PA system announcement, and so I obediently waited.

It was only about an hour later, when I got impatient (though I trusted that Cat was in safe hands) and barged into the observation ward without permission, that I saw Cat in great pain, with tears in her eyes. She had just done her epidural but apparently she was still feeling the strong effects of the strong contractions, despite that she had already had her epidural needle inserted more than 30 minutes ago.

Fortunately, the effects soon came in and she felt better after that. So the waiting game began. Dr Adelina Wong dropped by twice to check on her dilation and by 10am, her dilation was only 2 to 3 cm, a far stretch from the full dilation of 10 cm.

Sometime after noon, we were finally transferred to the birth ward where we had the room to ourselves. There was also a television set and a CD player. A dads-only comfort rocking chair was also available.

In the room, the atmosphere was more relaxed and Cat could occasionally steal a smile.

We waited, with many checks and stuffs happening in between, but the full dilation was only observed at 8pm, 11 hours since we first got warded in the labour ward.

Attempts for her to push baby Darius’ head were made for over an hour, but unfortunately they were not successful, as she was having spinal aches due to prolonged period of lying on the bed. In the end, our gynae arrive and she said it was not possible to perform an assisted delivery as the baby’s head was still quite high up.

So in the end, we were only left with one option – cesarean delivery. This was something that we were resistant to, but having fought the long battle for more than 20 hours since her admission, Cat was at her limit. So we agreed.

She was brought into the operating theatre, and I was only led there after the operation started. I was asked to sit by Catherine’s head and talk to her, but she was in extreme pain then, despite the aesthetics already applied. We believe she had some kind of resistance or slow reaction to these chemicals, which was evident in the epidural case in the morning.

She was groaning in pain as I comforted her, as Dr Adelina Wong performed the operation. After some time later, baby Darius was finally brought out, though I was too concerned with Cat’s condition and didn’t pay much attention to our newborn Darius.

Cat was still in a lot of pain, and tears were trickling down her eyes non-stop. The aesthetics specialist then injected some sleeping medicine to put Cat to sleep to ease her pain. While the medicine was in effect, Darius was cleaned up and I could manage to take photos and videos of him and talk to him, before he was brought over to Cat for a short kiss, whilst she continued to struggle in pain.

I was then ‘forced’ to be separated from Cat, as I was to follow the nurse pushing the trolley with Darius in it. As much as I was reluctant to, Dr Adelina Wong assured me that she would look after Cat. And so I left.

Back at the labour ward, Darius had his measurements taken, and I took the opportunity to talk to him, though I was not in the joyous mood as I thought I would be. I was too distressed by Cat’s condition to enjoy that precious moment.

I was then brought back to our ward at level 6, where Darius was brought into the nursery for the warmer and washing up. Cat was later pushed up to her ward too, and I was so very glad she finally looked a lot better.

There were some painkiller and sleep-inducing medicine in her drip, so she was feeling quite okay. We were told that Darius could be pushed to us to our ward at 2am, and so I waited while Cat could finally sleep soundly.

At 2am, I went over to the nursery but was disappointed that Darius could not be pushed over to Cat’s ward yet, as he still needed further warming to stabilise his temperature. So I could only have a short interaction with Darius at the nursery, before heading back home while Cat continued to rest.

Through this experience with Cat, and seeing how much she had endured and suffered, it really pained my heart to bring me to tears. I will always remember what happened today, and promise to love her deeply for as long as we live!

I would be back early morning tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing our baby Darius again soon!

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