For the past month there hasn’t been a night where I have been able to get a decent nights sleep, maybe my body is getting prepared for the baby and maybe becoming a light sleeper is a part of this transformation. Last night I woke up to see my wife crouched over the bed with a look of worry on her face, I asked if she was ok which her response was that "I think I have seen a show". Now for those of you who haven’t heard of a "show" before this isn’t a west end theatre production. A "show" is referred to the plug of mucus sealing your cervix, once this comes away then chances are labour could start within the week.
My wife was also unsure at this stage if her waters were breaking, and was worried by a drop of blood she had seen in some discharge. Although it was 3 o’clock in the morning we decided it would be best to phone the hospital and see what a trained midwife had to say. After a ten minute conversation my wife put the phone down, the midwife had given her some reassurance and agreed that what she had seen was a "show". Even though we knew this would happen and was a natural part of child birth we was still a little worried, the only comfort now was that we had a midwife appointment for 2:15pm today which would give us the opportunity to get my wife checked and ask any questions we might have.
2:15pm sitting in the doctors room, the midwife ran through our options, we could wait for a week and see if anything had developed, or she could perform a "membrane sweep" on my wife and see if she could help things along. Membrane sweeping can be carried out by your midwife or doctor and simply involves a finger "sweep" around your cervix (neck of your womb), with the aim to separate the membranes around your baby from your cervix.
A membrane sweep can release prostaglandins which is a hormone that may help kick-start your labour. My wife did find the sweep to be very uncomfortable and after a few seconds the midwife had to stop as she said the cervix was to far back and she couldn’t get to it. This wasn’t what we expected and it wasn’t until I got home and looked around on the net that I finally realised that it is common for women to have unsuccessful sweeps.
So now what, carry on drinking raspberry leaf tea, a hot curry, walks, a swim, I never prepared for this stage, tell the truth I never expected it. My wife has now been booked into the hospital for an induced labour in nine days time, the midwife said she was hoping that we didn’t have to have this done, I hope it doesn’t have to come to this.
So for now ill carry on with the hugs, the words of comfort, the laughter and the hope, the hope that the end will come soon, the hope that our baby will soon be in our arms.
