Labour is God damn HARD!!! Ok you might be one of the lucky ones where you are in labour for less than 2 hours and it only takes one push and your baby pops out, however for me it wasn’t anything like that. I had hoped for a natural labour and the 1st 12 hours I did that. 1 contraction every 3 minutes for 12 hours without any pain relief. To be honest contractions aren’t as bad as I thought they would be. I used the ball and breathed through it and somehow 12 hours later I was still standing.
Now I won’t go into how the last 12 hours panned out as I would hate to turn anyone off having a baby but suffice to say that after 24 hours, an infection, a bad reaction to medication where both the baby and I went into shock, my baby boy getting stuck and then having an emergency cesarean, I vowed I would never have a baby again. That is until I heard my little baby boy cry. The more he cried the more I wanted him by my side.
I called out his name, Maximilian, and he stopped crying, as if he knew my voice and that I was calling him. When I was in the clear, they finally passed him to me and it was love at first sight!!! He was beautiful in every way and I took back my vow; I would go through all the pain again for this precious little angel. There is nothing in this world like holding your own flesh and blood and looking into its little innocent eyes. I plan to have another baby in the future however next time it will be a planned cesarean.
Until the moment I went into labour we were unsure if we made the right decision having Maximilian in Saudi Arabia. We weren’t sure if the hospital would give the same service of care as they would have in our home country, however all our worries disappeared when I went into the emergency caesarian. The room was filled with doctors and nurses and I was in surgery in less than 5 minutes. They were all super professional and experienced and everything turned out well in the end. Maximilian Alasdair Paton joined the Paton Pack on the 8th of June at 1:33 a.m.
I was in the hospital for 5 nights. RIchard stayed with me the whole time and we were allowed to have visitors at any time of the day and night. It was like being in a 5 star hotel. We had a huge suite and we could call for medicine, nursing care, food, coffee – basically whatever you needed and wanted at any time. I had a doctor check on me twice a day and a paediatrician check Maxi twice a day. A nurse came and checked us every two hours and the cleaners cleaned the room 4 times a day. I have to say that even the food that they gave me was healthy and delicious. I would never have got this service in London, NYC or Sydney. We were very impressed by the whole experience and glad that we decided on having Maximilian in Saudi Arabia.
Also Saudis really know how to celebrate a newborn. The gift we received from our Saudi friends were remarkable. Balloons, flowers and chocolates filled our room. I have to say the tradition of giving a tray of chocolates, with toys is brilliant gift idea for a newborn and his family and should be adopted globally.
Things I learnt that I hope to hep other families with that go through an emergency c-section.