Teran, teran. Tarik nafas kuat-kuat, tahan dan teran panjang-panjang, ya? Teran kat perut, bukan kat muka. Angkat kepala, tengok perut. Tarik besi itu, ok? Bagus! Macam itulah. Teran, puan, teran! Sambung! Lagi. Lagi. Ok, curi nafas, sambung lagi. Betul, puan. Teran! Teran! Macam mahu berak. Geram! Geram! Rambut sudah nampak. Selagi rasa sakit, mesti mahu teran!

Ok. Sekarang rehat sekejap. Tarik and hembus nafas dalam dalam. Mahu minum air tak? Rileks dulu, kumpul tenaga, nanti sambung ya? Mesti boleh punya, puan.

Alright, push! Push! Take a deep breath, hold it, and push long and hard. Just like straining to pass motion. Don’t let the air escape. Continue, continue. Good. That’s the way. Come on, push harder. You can do it!

Kuk ah, kuk! Hou ah, kuk, kuk, kuk! Tau hei. Tui ah, tui! Kuk, kuk!

I was initially apprehensive of the labour room on-calls. First of all, there’s a lot of blood, screaming and pain. Apart from that, there is the suspense of waiting for the cervix to dilate from 1cm to 2cm, to 3 cm, to finally 10 cm. Not to mention those 24 hour-calls where you barely get any sleep and end up walking around like a zombie the next day.

The first day on-call, the doctors and the nurses scolded me for not cheering the patient on enough. I couldn’t seem to bring myself to cheer, as I’m generally an introverted person, who just doesn’t like to do this sorta stuff. To all you introverts out there, I’m sure you know what I mean. We hate making a big scene of ourselves.

Anyway, 6 weeks later, the cheers above have become spinal. What I mean is, all those words come so naturally, its almost like a spinal reflex, which by-passes the brain. I can do it at 5pm in the evening, I can also do it at 4 am in the morning, regardless. It has become so natural, that I actually feel as though I am watching myself do it from outside of my body. Seriously.

Nevertheless, I am so glad it is OVER. I conducted 6 deliveries. Assisted in more than a dozen others. Weighed and checked tons of placentas. Observed a couple of Caesarean sections, and scrubed-in once. I’m sure CN- did a lot more, as during her calls, the deliveries always seemed to be endless.

The stress, the fun.

The scoldings, the occasional appreciation.

The horror, the joy.

The tears, the happy smiles.

Whatever it was, it’s time to move on.

Paediatrics, here we come…