Vaginal examinations — what the nurse told me
For a first timer like me, it probably comes as a very shy incident when a doctor or other medical professionals request to examine one of the most hidden and guarded parts of your body. The first nurse to request me to do this obviously thought she was ‘examining’ me, but in my mind it was clear that she was ‘seeing’ me! I could literally ‘feel’ her looking at my vagina and it was actually quite dramatic for me, though seemingly very ordinary for her. I was at that moment also in great pain, my labour having just started. It was quite discomforting.
Looking firmly at my husband, the nurse told him, ‘Tafadhali toka kidogo, nataka kuangalia mama alivyo… please give us a few minutes.’ He walked out of the room and true to my fears, the nurse explained that she wanted to look ‘huko chini.’
I was slightly cross about the whole episode as the nurse explained very little of what she was up to and how she was doing it. However, I realized later that it is quite a normal procedure which for some reason I had simply not come across.
Do you need them?
I woke up at four that morning, all wet like a baby who had just had a bad dream about a swimming pool. I woke my husband up and told him ‘honey, I am all wet, I do not know what is happening!’ He shot out of bed and asked me to step on the floor. When I stood up, more fluid continued to flow out of my private parts. I was confused and very worried. Earlier that day, we had been at the clinic and I had been told the baby was due in a month, in line with my due date.
This was our first pregnancy and we were both anxious, not quite sure how to deal with this new development. I asked my husband to get hold of the little midwifery book we had been using for reference, to check whether this was normal. He replied that there was no time to read a book, we needed to get to a hospital fast.
Then suddenly he seemed to get a revelation and said ‘it’s your waters… your waters have broken, we need to get to the hospital right away or the baby will die!” This did not make sense since the baby was not yet due and I was not in labour, but I hurriedly changed from my sleeping gown and got into the car. All the while I was worried that something terrible may happen to my baby, or that I would deliver in the car.
Your waters have broken, though you are not in labour yet
‘Is my baby okay?,’ I asked the doctor who was examining me at the hospital. ’Yes,’ he replied. ‘It’s only that your waters have broken, though you are not in labour yet. We must deliver your baby,’ he explained. As I was not feeling any pain I thought to myself I was lucky because it seemed I would have a painless delivery, but alas… “We will have to induce you as the baby is not due,” he continued. This got me scared because I had heard that induced labour was extremely painful. My earlier dream of a painless birth was after all just a dream.
I was put on a wheelchair and waited to be allocated a bed for the inevitable. I was hardly ready for birth, I had not even shopped for the baby! My hopes were that I would do this together with my New Year shopping as the baby was due in January. I was still confused by the turn of events and tried to come to terms with the fact that I was going to be in a lot of pain shortly. I could not imagine what kind of pain it would be, or where I would feel it.I was however happy that my husband was with me and holding my hand; it gave me a lot of reassurance.
Please spread your legs apart.
I was wheeled away and my husband asked to wait in the visitors’ room; he would be called in once I was set up. I was frightened and did not want him out of sight, not for a single second! I was not sure what kind of bed I was being taken to. Poor me, I had thought a labour bed was some special kind of bed, only to encounter none other than a familiar ward bed.
The nurse helped me up the bed and put on a drip, explaining that it contained a drug which would induce labour. She left me to labour by myself “Is this the way it is supposed to be, labouring all alone?” I wondered.
I was still agonizing over what to expect, when another nurse came into the room, pushing a trolley full of stuff I could not clearly see from my sleeping position. She said ‘Hi’ and put on a pair of fresh white gloves. Then she asked me, ‘Please spread your legs apart.’ I was a bit hesitant, but thought this must be it: the baby must be close to being born.
She went on to examine me. In my mind, the whole of her hand was inside, and I could not believe it! Before I could recover, she was done with whatever she was checking. She wrote something on the clipboard (I now know it as a partogram), hung it at the head of my bed, thanked me and left.
The nurse explained that she wanted to look at ‘huko chini.
When my husband finally came into the room I was almost in tears, wondering where he had been and why he was letting unexplained things happen to me. Later on, a new nurse on the morning shift (it was now about 9 am) came into the room to find me painfully clutching at my husband’s hand.
Looking firmly at my husband she told him ‘tafadhali toka kidogo, nataka kuangalia mama alivyo… please give us a few minutes.’ He walked out of the room and true to my fears, the nurse explained that she wanted to look at ‘huko chini.’ After she was through, she said ‘unaendelea vizuri…’(’you are progressing well’).
In total I was examined three times, the last time by the doctor, who luckily took some time to warm my spirits and explained what he was doing and why. He apologized when I complained that previous exams were not explained.
He indicated that such exams were normal and that the nurses must have imagined I had gone through the same during my antenatal clinics or other hospital visits. I revealed to him that, actually, I had only attended the first antenatal clinic in my life just the previous day!
He could not believe that I had practically gone through my pregnancy without attending clinic, saying it was the most risky thing I could have done. I was guilty as charged!
END: PG 1/34-35