Motherhood, the event of a lifetime
A description can never be as vivid as an event that has been experienced.
An experience can never be as defining as an event that has left you changed.
Under the intensity of childbirth, you’re more likely to remember details
that would otherwise go unnoticed. All the scenes come together to leave
a permanent imprint on the mind’s eye.
The hospital room holds all the usual scenery: rooms lining featureless
walls, carts full of foreign devices and competent looking nurses ready
to help whatever the need be. The side rails of the bed smell of plastic.
The room is enveloped with the smell of plastic. A large bed protrudes
from the wall. It moves from one stage to the next, with the labor, so
that when you come to the “bearing” down stage, the stirrups can be put
in place. The side rails of the bed provide more comfort than the hand
of your coach, during each contraction. The mattress of the bed is truly
uncomfortable for a woman in so much pain. The eager faces of your friends
and family staring at your half naked body seem to be acceptable. They
keenly watch for you to push a child out of your most private area; under
no other circumstances would you allow this. The gloved fingers of the
doctor reaching into your vagina to help pull the baby’s head out also
seem to be allowable. Looking around the room, you realize that this is
the place where it’s all about to happen.
Labor can be described by only a few choice words, most of which are not appropriate to put on paper. Only those that are “blessed” with the opportunity of experiencing this most “joyous” occasion can really shed the correct light on it. The contractions would literally pull the child down on the unopened cervix that would not easily be opened. When the cervix is finally forced to its maximum, the urge to push becomes extreme. As the child reaches the end of the birth canal, you feel the stretching and tearing of the vagina. A creature the size of a watermelon is being forced through a whole smaller than the size of a lemon. Now that is something only one who has never experienced labor could only imagine. The skin of the most sensitive part on your body is being torn open. Imagine someone literally, with all his might, tearing your skin apart. Now that’s the most intense pain imaginable.
Through it all there is one redeeming moment, the moment that through the sweat and tears you see the most beautiful creature you have ever seen. You hear her cry and see her face and every painful moment is worth it. All the intense pain and agony you went through just fades away the instant you lay eyes on that precious baby. It’s amazing how much you can fall in love with a person the first time you meet. This is a case where the saying “Love at first site” stands true. The immense amount of love you feel toward that baby is overwhelming. The very second the being that you created arrives into this world all that is left to feel is emotion; the pain has elapsed. You are beset with joy, relief, and exhaustion. The suffering is over with and you finally get to see what has been growing inside you for the last nine months. You get to feel her near-weightless body in your arms and admire every intricate feature on her tiny body for the first time. It’s what you had anticipated from the second you knew of her existence. After it all, you cry because you created this gorgeous human being!
Looking back on my labor experience, some of the details I had forgotten after the labor was over with, I remember now. It’s odd how that works out. It’s as though details become more important to those experiencing an occasion such as labor. Maybe that’s because you want to cherish that memory. Or maybe the intensity just forces details to become more momentous. Whatever the case, through it all, labor is a chapter in life that will leave one who experiences it forever changed.