We Made It to the Hospital - Giving Birth in Panama Part 2
Giving birth in a foreign country is something I never planned to do. When I got pregnant here in Panama, we realized this would be a reality for us. I have given birth five other times, but every birth is different. Here is Part 2 of my birth experience at a private hospital in Panama.
If you missed it, here is Part 1 of my birthing story.
Nana and I get out and I am barely walking. It is around 5:15 or so. These women are standing there saying, “We should tell her.” Finally one of them says that the ER is down the hall and around the corner. I had already texted the doctor and she was going to meet us there after I convinced her that we didn’t need to meet in her office to get checked. At my last appointment with her, she said it would be okay with her if I arrived dilated to 8cm. So we slowly make our way toward the ER and an orderly meets us and asks if we want a wheelchair. He brings one and I sit down and tell my mom that I feel way better. I have a contraction with tons of random people staring at me, so I tried to be as quiet as I could!
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
After Ben parks the car, he comes in and finds us and we are waiting for the doctor, thinking that we are in the ER. She comes up after a few minutes and says we are in the wrong place and she was waiting in the real ER, not the waiting room! She pushes me to the ER and then tells me to go into the exam room so she can check me. Ben is told to go into a room and register me and fill out paperwork. She checks me and tells me at that point that I am complete and chaos follows.
They want me in a hospital gown. They want me to climb onto a gurney. They don’t really want to wait while I have contractions. Hurry hurry hurry. Where is Ben? I get on the gurney and am pushed to the elevator. Still no Ben, but the doctor went to go get him. He said they had 30 minutes of paperwork for him to fill out. The doctor came in and said that we would pay and to give them our cedula IDs and follow her. She gets them to the elevator just before we go up.
I am taken to the delivery room immediately. To me, this room looks and feels like a storage closet with a bathroom. Here they want me to get from the gurney to the delivery bed. Contractions are still strong and moving to the bed was a lot of effort. I get settled on the bed and she wants to know how I want it – laying down, sitting up. We try a few positions and settle on more of a sitting up position. Then she wants me to push when I have a contraction. We try that a few times, but my contractions are really short and spaced far apart.
Image by cor gaasbeek from Pixabay
I decide to go to the bathroom and walk around a bit. The contractions start to pick up some in intensity and frequency, but they still aren’t as intense as they were before. I have had 5 previous births, so I know making an “oooohhh” sound and swaying is good, so I start doing this. The doctor wants to know why I am doing that, and Ben tells her this is what I do.
I then tried to climb back into the bed and the foot stirrup is broken and gives out. They tell me that this happens all the time. I decide to get in and see how the contractions are going after walking around some. They suggest some natural ways to get my oxitocin levels up, but I honestly don’t want to increase my contractions. As a matter of fact, I don’t want to have another contraction at all. I am basically done, but my body is getting ready to go.
Image by Parentingupstream from Pixabay
I close my eyes to concentrate and block out the doctors and nurse speaking Spanish loudly in the room. Every time I make a noise or say ouch, the doctor asks me what is happening, how I feel, where it hurts. I start shaking and I know this is one of the best signs – the baby is almost here!!
**I have no pics of this part of my labor and delivery because honestly it was too crazy to stop and get pictures. I am used to labors that last hours and hours (like 24), not ones that are super fast and intense!
Stay tuned for Part 3!
I am a mom to six kids who lives in Panama. We relocated here about 2.5 years ago and love it. If you're interested in knowing more about Panama, check out the link below and plan to come on a Panama Relocation Tour!
This post is manually curated by @azizbd and received an upvote from @SchoolForSDG4
School For SDG4
A School For Social and Educational Development of Underprivileged Children
You have no idea how disappointed I am. I think this was very inconsiderate of you. (:-P ~~~~
Lol! Next time. ;)
Oh my word, it sounds quite scary delivering in a foreign country where they don't even speak your language! Hope you abd baby are doing well now.
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My doctor and pediatrician spoke English. I also speak Spanish, just not in labor. ;)
Wow what an experience! I would have went crazy if they had me going place to place while having contractions without my husband.
It’s funny to me how they weren’t used to seeing a mother birthing naturally. The way you swayed and breathed is exactly what I do too. I’m glad this wasn’t your first birth here and that you already knew what to do to get through the contractions. I focus on blocking out people too. Good for you mama! I’m looking forward to reading the next part later today!
:) Yeah if this had been my first, no telling what would have happened. The only coaching I really got was how to push. It's funny that I can't remember how to do that effectively. ;) LOL
Lol that’s so funny! Well it’s not your fault. Remember the more kids we have the less memory we have! 🤣🤣🤣
They drain us of everything! 😅
Well, every birth should have a good story to go with it, right?? Oh, utter chaos on delivery doesn't sound like fun!!! But, you seemed pretty cool for all that going on around you.
Bless you heart!
Tip
Hurry with the next part! :)
:) Yeah, it was a wild time and shocking to me that it was so fast. I really didn't think I was going to be able to do it there at the end.
This sounds very familiar as my wife delivered 4 of our 6 overseas. We waited a bit too long for our third and so our experience was similar to yours. I still had to fill out a lot of paperwork and make a downpayment while my wife was wondering where I was.
Blessings to your growing family!
Yeah we had to give a $1500 deposit to them and we misread the receipt and thought it said $500. We had to go back a few days later and have them refund part of the money since we only stayed overnight and our bill was $650! Apparently they want to keep the husbands busy since they normally don't go into the delivery room here! This was at a private hospital. I hear the public hospital is like $25, but then you have no say in what happens... I had a very good "natural" doctor who let me say what I wanted to happen. :)