Ever since I was young, I was set on adopting. First, I wanted to own a farm and adopt all of the animals. After, I was convinced that I would be a single, independent woman and adopt a child, providing all the love and warmth that I could for someone who needed it.
However, many things don’t always turn out as you imagine. I met my husband in college in the US and officially moved to Nepal in 2015. We got married in 2016 and, four years later, welcomed our daughter into this world. She was born at the beginning of August 2020.
Having her born during the time of Covid-19 has its ups and downs. When Covid-19 picked up in Nepal, our maternity-related visits to the doctor shifted to every six weeks instead of every month. We grew nervous as we heard about more cases and things happening around the world. We debated traveling outside of the country to give birth, but ultimately decided against it (as traveling seemed to be challenging in the current situation.)
My maternity care was at Mediciti Hospital, convenient as it was a 10-minute drive from our house. We had heard good things about the hospital for maternity care from friends.
Although I had my whole birth experienced planned out, complete with a birth plan, many people would keep telling me that it doesn’t always turn out how you imagine.
Two weeks before the baby’s expected due date, my ultrasound showed that she only measured at 32-33 weeks old. This was strange as she had been growing pretty consistently throughout my pregnancy. At the follow-up with my doctor, she told me that I was already dilated at 2 centimeters and, to my surprise, did a membrane stripping. She said that she hoped that the baby would arrive within the week. After, we did another Non-Stress Test (NST) to check to see if everything was okay with the baby. We were relieved to find out that she was responding well from the movement.
A week later, at our 39-week follow up, the doctor was surprised that the baby was not born yet. The ultrasound also showed she was on track measurement-wise. I decided to get the ball rolling and do yoga to induce labor naturally. We also took an hour-long walk on Friday, where I began to feel light contractions (although I didn’t realize – my stomach just felt tight and uncomfortable.)
On Saturday, I started having slight contractions in the afternoon while playing with my dogs. Learning that many women go to the hospital too soon, only to be sent back home because they are “false contractions,” I decided to wait it out. During dinner, I timed my contractions. At night, the contractions felt so strong that I couldn’t go to sleep. I paced around the closet and breathed. My husband woke up and told me that we might as well go to the hospital for my peace of mind and comfort.
We arrived at Mediciti around 3:30 a.m., filled out paperwork, and I got wheeled to the 5th floor. We checked in with the person in charge of the floor, where she said that I was only 3 centimeters dilated and told us it would take a while!
I could not believe that I was only 3 centimeters, and these were only “light” contractions. I commented that I must have low pain tolerance, and she nodded in agreement.
At this point, I was beginning to question my birth plan, which stated a natural birth without an epidural. She went over the birth plan with us and said we could probably do everything on it except for the episiotomy. It’s standard procedure at the hospital, and they do it for all women giving birth ‘naturally.’ She kept explaining to me that what they would do was more or less “naturally,” but just speeding along the process of the birth. I prefer to do things the most natural way (I even try to avoid medicine for cold if I can). I pushed for no episiotomy and tried to explain that our baby’s head was measuring small. Plus, the birth was natural, so if it tore, it would at least tear naturally, and I could get stitches (versus cutting intentionally and having stitches for sure with the episiotomy.) But on that point, she would not budge. Okay, so here was where I was starting to have to compromise a bit.
Since it was so early, she said that I could wait in our private room as it would probably take an hour to dilate one centimeter. Since I was only at 3 centimeters, we were looking at seven or so more hours. Not a problem – I had packed my maternity bag weeks before, complete with a lavender spray to calm me, toiletries, Netflix shows, and more.
A couple of women came into the room to prep me. After they did the NST test again, and my stomach was still empty from food and water, the baby did not move much. They later returned and said that they would manually break my water as they did not know if the baby was in distress or stable conditions as the NST wasn’t showing much movement. Again, still natural, just speeding the process along.
A half-hour passed, an hour and contractions intensified. I ended up sitting on the yoga ball they gave me and leaned my head on the edge of the bed. Man, those “light contractions” sure felt strong!
Before I knew it, I was groaning so much and naturally began to push, and we rushed to call the head of the department. As soon as she saw me pushing and checked on me, they saw that I was fully dilated, put me in a wheelchair, and the nurse ran me to the delivery room. The whole delivery team rushed into action, and everyone was there within 10 minutes. I went into the delivery room at around 8:20 a.m., and she was born at 8:39 a.m. It all happened so fast that I didn’t end up using the epidural (although the anesthesiologist was present.) It was a rapid birth, and we were all lucky to be healthy and happy.
Overall, my husband and I were impressed with the birthing team’s professionalism and knowledge and how everything turned out at the hospital. I had a great pregnancy and birthing experience here in Nepal as a non-Nepali which I am very grateful for.
