Tub Flub

We saw Dr. Chong today. I was a little anxious & stressed about the visit today cos the water level was 6.7 low last week and he talked to me about sweeping my membranes last week which Wei & I politely declined.

"Sweep/Strip the membranes": the act of separating the amniotic sac from the cervix to bring the onset of prostaglandin, the hormone used to start labour.

The water level 5.6 was lower than last week and Dr. Chong spoke about the repercussions if we were to let things be.

Something about what he said stuck: having a natural birth is not the most important right now; rather, having a birth in as natural a way possible is the key. For me, if I am intending to do a water birth, delivering the baby with caesarean is on the opposite end of the continuum. I want to do the steps to avoid that end.




The sweep was mighty uncomfortable - apparently my cervix was still pretty high up and has not soften much (a downer for me). I grabbed Wei's hand for support. Geez, this is not even the start of labour.

The discomfort persisted after that for about 4 hours. The feeling was akin to raw skin rubbing against each other.

I am a little down at this point in time. You can't 'train' your body to go into labour. If it doesn't initiate on its own, if the cervix doesn't soften and efface, if you are not dialated....there's not a thing you can do about it.

I feel my water birthing plan slowly drifting away.

On the bright side, I could go into labour the next 48 hours.