by Sophie May

Created on: April 24, 2008

I was young, too young and yet I knew it all! Here I was, big as a house and fearing nothing. I knew very little about giving birth. I heard that there was pain but, how bad could it be?

When I was in my last months of pregnancy, my husband and I lived on a farm with my Grandmother. My husband was working shifts and was on what we called the 4-12 shift the night all hell broke loose! I had driven him to his job earlier that day and told him I would pick him up at 12 mid-night. I went through the day as usual and decided to take a bath before I left to pick up my husband. I managed to situate my uncomfortably large anatomy into the bath tub and enjoyed the warm water enveloping me. I imagined that my baby must be enjoying it too because it wasn't kicking or moving at all. Must be sleeping, I thought.

After drying off and dressing into my very big clothes, I left the house and got into our car to drive into town and pickup my husband. We loved our car - a red and white 1965 Chevrolet - a real beauty. I no sooner turned over the ignition and whoooosh - I thought I wet myself. Damn - all over the car seats! It then dawned on me. This must be what they referred to as the "water-breaking." I got out of the car, went back into the house and told my Grandmother what happened. She then asked my uncle (who also lived there) to drive in and pick up my husband. I clearly remember telling him that he better put a towel on the seat because it was very wet. He left and I just waited to see what was going to happen next.

Well, my husband got home and still nothing else happened. Heck, this was going to be a piece of cake! For some reason, my Grandmother kept asking me if I was bleeding - something about a "showing." Well, it was just a few hours later and guess what? - The "show" began! The pain started and it continued. My husband's mother said we should time the pains and then call the doctor. We did and off we went to the hospital.

Pains kept coming. What's going on? This is not at all what I expected. Many, many hours had gone by and still the pain continued. I was in a "maternity ward" with several other ladies at different stages of child birth and screaming at various decimals. I saw quite a few of them come and go and yet I was still in pain and STILL SCREAMING! I always considered myself somewhat modest and yet, I didn't care at this point. If the janitor came in the room and said he could help me I wouldn't have hesitated for a moment.

We were now past the 36 hour

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