Still Having Contractions?!

This is the No 1 question everyone has been asking me since.... since 3 months ago. The answer (which often elicits incredulous looks) is yes, but irregularly.

Doctors usually go a step further and ask," Is it painful?", in an attempt to distinguish it from the relatively harmless Braxton Hicks contractions (i.e. false/ practice contractions).

Now, this is where it gets a little tricky. Yes, it is painful, but I don't really know how 'real' contractions feel like since this is my first pregnancy. But I know it bothers me enough to wake me up several times at night, distracts me when I drive, makes me stop if I'm taking a walk and characteristically makes me break out in sweat.

Yet, knowing that the irregular nature of the contractions will not lead to actual labour, I am not too bothered about it. In fact, sufficiently distracted, I can even choose to ignore it. Interestingly, the significance of 'pain' has evolved over the weeks.

We celebrated 37 weeks last Saturday, a real milestone for our little one who we thought would certainly be a screaming newborn by now. The many prayers of our friends and family have been answered - our baby has reached full term.

Looking back, the first few weeks of April were fraught with anxiety and fear. I doubt the actual contractions were very painful, but with each one came a real threat of delivering a very premature baby. Bed rest was strictly adhered to, and each contraction was meticulously recorded in a little notebook. Several weeks, and 2 hospital admissions later, our little one was growing well (so was I!) and I gained increasing confidence. However, my little notebook told me that my contractions were still occuring at a similar frequency.

Fast forward 2 months later, I was back at work. Driving along the Federal Highway, I typically experienced one or two contractions but somehow managed. My notebook? It had long been abandoned.

Now, approaching the final bend of a long marathon, fellow drivers will be glad to know that I'm no longer on the road, but resting at home. Throughout these weeks and months, the contractions never ceased. The golden question once again - is it painful? Yes, but it doesn't bother me as much. In fact, right now I would welcome any indication of labour since I know our little baby is ready to face the world. I welcome pain!

This brings me to a superb book that I had read recently - "The Gift Of Pain" co-authored by Philip Yancey and the late Dr Paul Brand. Readers of Yancey will know that Dr Brand influenced him immensely, and studies of his life would yield top-selling books such as "Where Is God When It Hurts?".

Dr Brand was a renowned surgeon who spent much of his 50-year career working among leprosy patients in India and the USA. His work allowed him to probe into the mysteries of pain, and he finally concluded that pain is a gift from God. He saw the problems lepers faced due to painlessness, how pain was such an essential signal to the body of imminent danger. Without the warning signals of pain, lepers typically damaged their own bodies unknowingly, resulting in progressive loss of limbs, sight and eventually, their very lives.

Dr Brand divides the experience of pain into three stages:

1. Stage one - the pain signal experienced by the peripheral nerves
2. Stage two - the "spinal gate" at the level of the spinal cord and base of brain that sorts out signals that are then forwarded as a message to the brain
3. Stage three - the higher brain which sorts out the messages and decides on a response

While modern medicine has a range of tools to deal with pain at stages one and two at increasing efficiency, it is perhaps at stage three where a person can have the greatest control over his experience of pain. Painful contractions at 24 weeks gestation and 37 weeks gestation have totally different implications. Where previously I reacted with fear and tears, now I eagerly anticipate labour pains, knowing that I will finally see my precious baby (and end the debate about the hair colour!).

He goes on to illustrate his point with a story about a soldier who fought at war and sustained wounds as evidence of his selfless bravery. Yet, when it came to receiving injections in the hospital ward, nurses and doctors simply could not help him overcome his irrational phobia of needles.

This concept also explains the widely accepted cultural differences on the perception of pain. Ask any Malaysian midwife and she'll tell you without hesitation that Indians have the lowest pain thresholds and the Chinese seem to be at the other end of the spectrum. Dr Brand tells us of an interesting childbirth syndrome called "Couvade" in societies of the Amazon Valley and Micronesia, where women in labour seldom display any signs of discomfort or pain. Instead, it is the husband who seems to bear all signs of conventional distress - lying and groaning in bed for hours and even days after the delivery!

Ah, there are too many interesting stories to relate from the book. Grab a copy and be completely amazed by the intricacies of the human body, which can only point us to our Creator.

Meanwhile, I wait impatiently for the arrival of my baby. As C.S.Lewis wrote:

"Exaggerate the weariness by making him think it will soon be over; for men usually feel that a strain could have been endured no longer at the very moment when it is ending, or when they think it is ending. " Uncle Screwtape, from The Screwtape Letters

Of course, I can hardly parallel my experience to that of war, but you get the drift.

More another time...