Dawon and Su Min's surprise natural birth - Dad's story
On October 14 2012, I began my new life and share my lovely bed with someone I love - Su Min. That was the day I got married .
Hi, my name is Dawon Tan , an ordinary guy who just started to have a family. Things became complicated because my wife happened to have uterine fibroid. At that moment, a question came into my mind ,”will my wife become pregnant?” Obviously, the doctor may say yes and not to worry about it but I was concerned. Even both of our parents were worried about it. However, in order not to crush their dreams of becoming grandparents ,I tried to reassure them confidently that medical technology is very advanced nowadays .
Time passed by. After two of years of medical consultations and laboratory tests on both of us , there never seem to have good news. Disappointments, questions and pressure came upon us esepcially during family reunions .
I started wondering about the lifestyle, working environment and pressure that we lived with. Were those the problem or am I not fated to become a father? These thoughts came fleetingly into my mind and I began each day with stress and tiredness.
It was time to face the problem. We talked about it and changed every aspect of our lifestyles. My wife changed her career, we stopped staying up too late at night and stopped alcohol, started to exercise and planned for vacation etc. Besides seeing a doctor, we started seeking Chinese medicine and tried everything we know just for a hope. After three months of nasty herbal soups, finally my wife surprised me with a pregnant stick. Wow! What a great surprise and relief.
Months passes by and my wife started to have questions about the birthing process and somehow I realized that she had fear and less confidence on laboring. We began to search for information on the internet but it didn’t help in any way. So we made plans to attend breastfeeding and HypnoBirthing class.
At a gathering with a few of my best friends, I told them we were going to attend both of the classes but it turned out to be a joke for them. Some friends started to laugh and told me that I was wasting money on them and started sharing their wives birth stories but mostly all stories were the same. They just paid and let the hospital do their job for them. (“ really that easy”)
To comfort my wife, we carried on with our decision after all.
Both of the classes surprised me. I was not aware that there was so much to learn, such as medical knowledge , natural birthing knowledge , breastfeeding knowledge etc. And most importantly, we can save up to five figure of money in the future .(HAHAHA) These classes are really worth attending.
Nine months of monitoring, I thought everything should be just in order. However, doctor told me my wife’s situation was far from optimistic. Her placenta started to deteriorate and blood test showed that platelet count was not in the optimal level (ITP). This was quite a serious problem as our doctor mentioned, and he was worried that Su Min would not be able to have a natural birth nor a c-section. Induction was the only way. A hematogolist other blood doctor would need to stand by for emergency but their hospital did not have one so we had to transfer to another hospital. Disappointment came again.
We called Bee Ting, our HypnoBirthing childbirth educator, to get some solutions and recommendations . She gave a few options and in the end, we chose Pantai Bangsar/Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Malaysia and began the transfer .
We had selected 27th May 2015 as my baby’s birthing day and felt a little disappointed for not having a natural birth after all that we have prepared for but as long as my wife and baby were safe, that’s what matter most.
Miracle happened four days before the scheduled induction date. On Saturday midnight my wife started to have small contractions. We were told that this was the sign of labor but we never rushed to the hospital. We knew the contraction may take longer time for the first baby so we continued to sleep. Next morning we prepared all the belongings and started to enjoy the weekend life we usually have. At 12am Monday morning my wife started to get more painful and longer contractions each time. I know it was time I should bring my wife to the hospital.
As expected, she was 4 cm open upon admission. I started discussing our birth plan with the midwife and they agreed with most of it. (This is what I was taught during the HypnoBirthing class - get your birth plan ready). After the discussion ,we tried many of the HypnoBirthing techniques that we learnt, making sure my wife was in comfort and less pain during the contractions.
After few hours, the nurse came to have a second vaginal exam and the doctor ask if we wanted an epidural but we insisted to deliver in a natural way. A moment later, our baby’s head started to emerge. Finally , our baby was born, ten months of waiting and now I got to see his face clearly .
Hi, my name is Dawon Tan , an ordinary guy who just started to have a family. Things became complicated because my wife happened to have uterine fibroid. At that moment, a question came into my mind ,”will my wife become pregnant?” Obviously, the doctor may say yes and not to worry about it but I was concerned. Even both of our parents were worried about it. However, in order not to crush their dreams of becoming grandparents ,I tried to reassure them confidently that medical technology is very advanced nowadays .
Time passed by. After two of years of medical consultations and laboratory tests on both of us , there never seem to have good news. Disappointments, questions and pressure came upon us esepcially during family reunions .
I started wondering about the lifestyle, working environment and pressure that we lived with. Were those the problem or am I not fated to become a father? These thoughts came fleetingly into my mind and I began each day with stress and tiredness.
It was time to face the problem. We talked about it and changed every aspect of our lifestyles. My wife changed her career, we stopped staying up too late at night and stopped alcohol, started to exercise and planned for vacation etc. Besides seeing a doctor, we started seeking Chinese medicine and tried everything we know just for a hope. After three months of nasty herbal soups, finally my wife surprised me with a pregnant stick. Wow! What a great surprise and relief.
Months passes by and my wife started to have questions about the birthing process and somehow I realized that she had fear and less confidence on laboring. We began to search for information on the internet but it didn’t help in any way. So we made plans to attend breastfeeding and HypnoBirthing class.
At a gathering with a few of my best friends, I told them we were going to attend both of the classes but it turned out to be a joke for them. Some friends started to laugh and told me that I was wasting money on them and started sharing their wives birth stories but mostly all stories were the same. They just paid and let the hospital do their job for them. (“ really that easy”)
To comfort my wife, we carried on with our decision after all.
Both of the classes surprised me. I was not aware that there was so much to learn, such as medical knowledge , natural birthing knowledge , breastfeeding knowledge etc. And most importantly, we can save up to five figure of money in the future .(HAHAHA) These classes are really worth attending.
Nine months of monitoring, I thought everything should be just in order. However, doctor told me my wife’s situation was far from optimistic. Her placenta started to deteriorate and blood test showed that platelet count was not in the optimal level (ITP). This was quite a serious problem as our doctor mentioned, and he was worried that Su Min would not be able to have a natural birth nor a c-section. Induction was the only way. A hematogolist other blood doctor would need to stand by for emergency but their hospital did not have one so we had to transfer to another hospital. Disappointment came again.
We called Bee Ting, our HypnoBirthing childbirth educator, to get some solutions and recommendations . She gave a few options and in the end, we chose Pantai Bangsar/Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Malaysia and began the transfer .
We had selected 27th May 2015 as my baby’s birthing day and felt a little disappointed for not having a natural birth after all that we have prepared for but as long as my wife and baby were safe, that’s what matter most.
Miracle happened four days before the scheduled induction date. On Saturday midnight my wife started to have small contractions. We were told that this was the sign of labor but we never rushed to the hospital. We knew the contraction may take longer time for the first baby so we continued to sleep. Next morning we prepared all the belongings and started to enjoy the weekend life we usually have. At 12am Monday morning my wife started to get more painful and longer contractions each time. I know it was time I should bring my wife to the hospital.
As expected, she was 4 cm open upon admission. I started discussing our birth plan with the midwife and they agreed with most of it. (This is what I was taught during the HypnoBirthing class - get your birth plan ready). After the discussion ,we tried many of the HypnoBirthing techniques that we learnt, making sure my wife was in comfort and less pain during the contractions.
After few hours, the nurse came to have a second vaginal exam and the doctor ask if we wanted an epidural but we insisted to deliver in a natural way. A moment later, our baby’s head started to emerge. Finally , our baby was born, ten months of waiting and now I got to see his face clearly .