My son was born on 3rd January 2007.  My contractions started around 5am in the morning. Since it was at long intervals, I thought that it must be Braxton Hicks contractions or false labour. At about 7am I called my doctor and she said that I should rush to the hospital and that she would decide whether it was true or false labour. I thought that I should wait and watch as I thought it would be embarrassing if the doc said, "Sorry, its false labour... come back later when you have real contractions."  I had informed my husband about the pain when he woke up, but he was cool since I didn't show any sign of urgency.

At around 10 am, I spoke to my mother-in-law about the pain and she said that if the frequency was less I could wait. My mother-in-law was a midwife in Africa for 30 years so I trusted her judgement.

I realised that the pain was increasing but I acted relaxed so that my husband wouldn't panic. I tried to watch a movie to relax myself but I realised that the frequency of the contractions were increasing and we finally decided that we would go to the hospital after lunch -- around 2pm.

At that time I was working with a leading travel agency as a manager handling travel for corporate clients. Since my due date was actually 8th Jan, I hadn't thought of going on maternity leave yet.

So just as we decided to leave for the hospital, I realised that I hadn't completed the work on my husband's boss' ticket who happened to be my customer as well.   So in between my contractions and my husband's panic I had to call my colleagues and handover the work and keep the customer posted.

Everybody thought it was quite funny because here a lady was in labour and she was busy organizing tickets ... rather than actually thinking of rushing to the hospital. Admittedly, since my luggage was packed in advance I did not have much else to worry about! I was still thinking about work on my way to the hospital.

My doctor was furious to see me walking in at 3pm. She had made all arrangements for me in the morning but got really annoyed that I did not take her advice. My contractions were increasing at regular intervals and the baby's heartbeat was being monitored.

All looked fine and everybody hoped that it would be a normal delivery when suddenly my doctor noticed that the baby's heartbeat was dropping and he was in distress and had passed miconeum inside. I was rushed to the operating theatre for a C-Section. Since I wasn't under general anaethesia I was ableto hear  my baby cry for the first time at around 7.50pm.

I feel its better that it was a C section because I realised that going through the normal delivery pains was even worse. I felt so happy looking at my little one sucking his thumb like I had seen him in the scan when he was about 4 months in my womb.

This was my experience and I thought I should share it with you all. I am sure all moms would have lots to talk about their experiences in child birth.. so please express it here ... this is the right place !!