With the news of expecting another child, I can’t help but to reflect on how our beautiful daughter came into this world more than two years ago. I had so many people ask me if I was going to stay here or come back to the states, but with our visa situation so up in the air at that time it was much easier to stay and pray that everything worked out. Everything worked out and we had a healthy baby girl, but the journey was a roller coaster of emotions and events outside of our expectations.

Shortly after I found out I was pregnant, I came down with a parasite. Knowing that you have to be extremely cautious about medications, I went to the hospital for advice. Since I was only six weeks along, they had trouble understanding how I could be pregnant or how I could have even known without coming to the hospital to find out. We had only been living in Thailand for a year, so language was definitely a factor in communicating with the doctor. Finally, they did an internal ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy and gave me a medication safe for use. Since we were there we asked when we should come back for another appointment . . . “about 6 months,” was the response.

This was my first child, but something told me maybe I should be seeing a doctor a little more often than that. We decided maybe it would be a better idea to go to Bangkok and see a different doctor. We went to the best hospital in Bangkok and saw a really good doctor who did all the normal testing, questioning, and examining one would expect at a first prenatal visit. Later that summer, we were forced to switch to teaching visas which tied us down to Udon without a chance of going 9 hours away for either doctor visits or a delivery there. By the time I was six months along, I settled on a doctor here in town at a private hospital.

I managed to have a very smooth pregnancy, and only put on 22 pounds without the first stretch mark. About 2 weeks before Tara was due, a sudden drop which felt like what you see women on TV have when their water breaks woke me up from a deep sleep. My contractions started but weren’t too painful nor were they close together. Two days later, I visited my doctor who reported that things were looking good, I had already dilated 1 cm and my cervix had softened. She expected to see me anytime that week and told me to come in when my water broke. My contractions were as close as 5 minutes apart, but since my water never broke, another week passed. By that time, the doctor decided that my labor was progressing too slowly. She admitted me, and started me on meds to strengthen my contractions. Two hours later, I was having regular contractions every 2 minutes, after which the doctor broke my water to help things along more quickly.

Word got around that I was in the hospital and the Thai visitors came flooding in. Nothing special here happens without a crowd: weddings, funerals, parties, and even births. This was something I wasn’t prepared for. Right in the middle of the labor room I had a party of about 15 people who were eating, watching Thai TV, playing with the air conditioning thermostat and trying to keep a constant conversation with me. The pain got worse, but my labor wasn’t progressing. Every two or three hours the doctor would give me the same report, “you’re still only 3 cm.” I tried to roll over and keep to myself; I wasn’t screaming – just trying to breathe. Ten hours later, most of the guests went home because it was getting dark. The doctor came in with the news of a possible cesarean. Medical procedure was to give you 12 hours after your water broke. After close monitoring of Tara’s heartbeat and my vitals, the doctor approved to let me continue natural delivery since all vitals were normal. She also gave me some pain medication to allow me to relax in that minute in between contractions.

To no avail, 14 hours of hard labor left me with no other options other than risking my health by continuing or to have an emergency cesarean. The nurses came in and prepped me for surgery. I was devastated and scared, but glad the saga would soon come to an end. I was given an epidural so I could be alert when Tara was born. Since it was in the middle of the night, Danny didn’t have time to scrub in and had to watch from a glass window. He was on the other side of the curtain, so he got a very vivid view of what was happening. As soon as Tara was born, she was wisped away for cleaning and Apgar testing. I remember finding out her score was a 9 out of 10 and seeing her for a second before things went black. My body was going into shock because of the prolonged labor and the excessive loss of blood caused by the operation. I found out about 3 hours later in recovery that the nurse had actually sedated me. I was still shaking, but had stabilized by then. Danny spent Tara’s first three hours holding and taking care of her until I was able to return to our room.

What a joy it was after having been in labor for over a week and in the hospital for 18 hours of chaos, to hold and see our beautiful daughter. She was perfect. God blessed us with more than we could have ever dreamed! She was perfectly healthy and had the most beautiful skin, eyes, little nose … everything! A couple of hours later the visitors rolled back in to see our sweet little girl. Against hospital procedure, the doctor and nurses were wonderful about letting Tara room in with me. I give God the glory for working everything out in what could have been a very dangerous situation. Things had not gone as I planned or expected, but God is more powerful than my wants. How comforting and sweet to know He worked everything out for the best! I appreciate everyone who prayed for me and I urge you to continue to keep me in prayer concerning the new baby to come!

In Christ,
Rachel Jones

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