Having a few friends who have either birthed recently or going to birth in a couple of months made me reflect on my own birth stories. And I like dwelling on them coz I see so clearly the hand of God on the pregnancies, labour and birth. I would say I am one of the rare women who have had enjoyable and pleasant births :) Nothing to do with me, I may add! It is all by the grace of God and His work on the cross.

I hope that by sharing with you, I may encourage those who are about to birth or those contemplating motherhood to know that birth can be a not scary thing. But please note that every birth is different, there is no magic formula. We just can't pigeon hole God, chant some mumbo jumbo and expect God to do exactly what we want.

#1 - this birth was what I called my baptism of fire :) We had read the book Supernatural Childbirth by Jackie Mize and understaood and agreed with her that the work on the cross by Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of "sorrow" or "pain" of childbirth. But we didn't know anyone who believed in it and how it would actually work out. So when the contractions hit, we thought "this is it!" and went to the hospital on the dr's advice even though God didn't tell us to do so. Oh we prayed but we didn't wait for His answer! :( And what happened was awful.

I had to be put on a drip to "accelerate the labour" as the dr said coz my labour had stalled. He also proceded to break my waterbag. Combined, they brought on the most awful contractions that were so fast and hard that it left me gasping for air! In the beginning tho' it was still painless but after a while, there was PAIN!!! I finally caved in and took the pethedine shot and used the gas mask.

My body, which was designed perfectly by God to bear and birth babies, was being sabotaged by the drip and premature bursting of the waterbag! In a normal process, the body is able to handle each contraction as it came, releasing enough endorphins (the happy hormones) to counter each contraction. But with an artifically induced labour, the body's mechanism is short circuited.

I wanted to push but was not allowed to because I hadn't dlilated to 10cm. I spent most of the hours from 8am (when the drip was inserted & the waterbag broken) to 4pm trying NOT to push. So when it was time to push, I had no more energy! baby was finally taken out via a vacuum cap :( And I had the "requisite" episiotomy :( Besides being physically tired out, recovery was surprisingly fast. But I was sore at the bottom for about 3 - 5 days.

What did I learn? No matter what happened, God's hand was still on me and the baby. On that day in the hospital, our birth was the only natural one out of the five births that happened! Oh! The power of prayer and the grace of God!

But I knew that this was far from the Supernatural Childbirth I was meant to have. So I read up and joined discussions on email groups that spoke about a natural birth. One big mistake I made was to go into the hospital too early!

Going in too early had several consequences. One of which is that labour can stall or stop altogether. The stressful situation in the hospital (nothing beats labouring at home if you have no medical condition!) is not comfortable. So if you are near your EDD and your labour stalls, then there is most likely going to be an induction. Yucks! If the baby is due, the induction may be just a very painful way to labour. BUT if the baby is not ready to come out and there is an induction, your body will not cooperate. Contractions will not be strong enough and there'll be no dilation. But if the waterbag has been broken, the baby has to come out so a c-section will be performed!

So the main lesson I learnt was : not to go in too early!