The Life of a Missionary Wife: The Birth Story of Luke Gaboriault: Part 4

When I arrived in the delivery room I looked at the clock above my head and it was 9:00 a.m. There were three beds set up which were all empty and they put me on one in the far corner. The nurse who would deliver my baby spoke pretty good English, and came in and began to talk me through some things. I was having the most terrible time listening to her through each contraction, and now I was getting that strong urge to push. They quickly got supplies ready and then told me go whenever I was ready. They talked me through how I should push, which apparently is a lot different than I thought. I kept getting told I was doing it wrong, which was a bit discouraging, but I knew they knew more than I did. It bothered me a great deal that every time the nurse would refer to my ‘bottom’, she would use a word that I consider a curse word. I knew with English being her second language, she had picked up this word somewhere and probably had no idea it could be offensive.

The time I spent pushing went by in a huge blur. There was this fantastic lady who came to wipe me down with a cold wet rag periodically. She was my favorite! Also the head nurse kept saying, “You’re a strong, good mommy!” This helped to motivate me.

Luke's hair- which did appear black and curly
at first, but by his second day was light and straight.

After a few pushes I was told they could already see his head. They giggled saying I must have a Thai baby because he had black hair! This made me so excited. The nurse ended up breaking my water, which upset me at first because it hurt, but was followed with quite a bit of relief. That moment I really began to realize this was about to happen. I just couldn’t believe it.

It only took a few more pushes and his head came out, then one big push and Luke Anderson Gaboriault entered the world at 9:54 a.m., only about 7 hours from the time I said we needed to leave for the hospital. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The Bible is absolutely true when it says a mother will forget the pains of childbirth when the child is delivered (John 16:21). All I could focus on was him. I knew by looking at him he was extremely tiny compared to other babies I had seen, and I was worried about him being so early. I was prepared for them to whisk him away to the NICU, so I was totally shocked when the first thing they did was put him on my chest. He was already crying strong cries, and immediately began to breastfeed. He also took this time to welcome me to motherhood by peeing on me, twice. His squirming little body was warm and perfect. I could not take him in fast enough, but the image of him looking at me for the first time will be in my mind forever.

He only stayed with me a short time, and they took him to the corner of the room to be checked and weighed. The nurse finished up everything with me while I focused my attention to that sweet crying boy in the corner. A nurse announced Luke weighed 2,300 grams, or 5 pounds 1 ounce. I never heard his length that day, but found out later he was 50 cm long, or 19 ½ inches. He got a perfect 10 for his Apgar score, which is not really common for a premature baby. He didn’t look premature, just tiny, and he wasn’t showing any signs of problems!

Next, they put him in an incubator and took him up to the NICU for monitoring. They took me back out to the area where I labored, but all the beds were now full, so they put me in a hallway. I was totally alone and I was fine with that. I was overwhelmed with excitement at what had just happened and in shock at what my body was just able to do. I spent this time replaying the events in my head, thinking about his little face, and praying prayers of thanks. Soon though, I began to wonder why I was still alone and I was curious if they would give me some pain medicine now, if only Tylenol, since I think my adrenaline was beginning to wear off. I began calling for someone, and by the time I got to an almost yell a nurse came to me and said, “One moment.” She went back in the big room and then I heard the word ‘forgot’ and a conversation of someone getting in trouble for forgetting me.

Luke holding Daddy's fingers.

They moved me back into the labor room, and still with no bed available, I was in the walkway between the beds. This meant that my bed got knocked several times by people passing by, but it also meant I could get a nurse’s attention easily. Then Jared showed up! I teared up as I saw him and began to spill about how beautiful our baby boy was. He said he knew because he saw him as they brought him out and was able to follow him into the NICU. He had spent a little while alone with Luke before coming to see me. Jared was so excited about his bright eyes and the way he held Jared’s fingers. We talked and spent a long time dwelling in our excitement. Jared helped me get a nurse’s attention so I could get that Tylenol, and then he went to see if we could possibly get a private room in the hospital. We were sad to find out none were available, but this ended up being okay since the NICU was right next to the postpartum wing.

I stayed in recovery until 2 p.m. because I was not still contracting like they wanted me to. I ended up getting two doses of Pitocin and another shot of something else to help. Eventually I was cleared to be moved to the regular room, and Jared was there as I was moved. We passed by our friends who excitedly said they had been able to see Luke as he was wheeled by.

The postpartum room.

The postpartum room was a huge room with about thirty beds, most of which were full of other new mommies. It was actually a little neat to be around so many other women going through the same thing as you. It took me a few days to even realize past my excitement just how awful the conditions were compared to what I was used to. There was no air conditioning and we were in very close quarters. There was no privacy except the curtains between the beds that they only closed if you were being examined. There were four or five community toilets/showers that were not clean at all, and not even soap at the sinks. I avoided the bathroom as much as possible. It’s funny because afterward my mom said going to church camp all those years had prepared me for these conditions. She was right; it was very similar, and that’s not a good thing for a hospital. But as I said, I was too excited and I didn’t realize this until later.

Jared sat with me a little while and then our friends, the Vickers, came in to visit. I began to cry as I told them how thankful I was to have them there. As we were talking a nurse came walking in holding Luke! We were able to hold him and show him off and take our first family picture. I asked the nurse when Luke could come stay by my bed, like all the other mommies and babies in there. She told me he couldn’t because of being premature he needed to be monitored. This made me pretty sad, but she assured me she would bring him for visits and I could go visit him when I was able. She was great about bringing him to visit every few hours and she helped me with learning to breastfeed. I noticed they had put a feeding tube in his mouth, and she also explained that it was normal for early babies to not know how to eat yet, so they were going to need to teach him to eat. Besides that, she said he was healthy and doing great. I was sad when our visit was over, but I could see the door to his room from my bed, so this made things a little better knowing he was so close.