My mind as a teenager
episode 79
11 September 2013.
I woke up with a sharp pain in my lower
abd0m£n.
I looked at the wall clock hanging in my room
and it re-ad 2:17am. I ran to the toilet thinking
that I was pressed or something but nothing
c@m£ out.
I c@m£ out to continue my sleep but each
time I closed my eyes,the pain would return. I
think it c@m£ every 20 minutes or less. I
tossed on the be-d. Nothing occurred to me
that I was in labour.
I remained awake till 6am. I checked my
phone but there was no airtime. I s£nt Vivian
a call me back SMS and she called me
immediately. I asked her to s£nd me airtime
that I nee-ded to call my mum. She agreed
and ended the call.
Thirty minutes later,I got no message so I
went to my WhatsApp and s£nt my mum
messages,telling her how I felt and my
inability to sleep. God being merciful,mum
called immediately. She asked me to pick the
bag that was in her wardrobe (she had earlier
brou-ght out the ones that will be nee-ded at
the hospital) and rush to the hospital and
that I should take my bath with h0t water
before leaving. She said she would drive
down to Onitsha(from nsuka) immediately.
I did as she told me; took my bath with h0t
water and wore a go-wn. Someone who had
seen me that morning with my bag would
think I was travelling. I walked as slow as the
pain would let me. I got to a tricycle(keke)
stand and chartered one to the hospital. I got
there and was lucky enough to pick number
2. The nurses knew what was wrong with me
so they took my bag and asked me to be
walking round the premises till it was Time to
see the doctor.
As I walked round,the pain st©pped so I went
and sat down. I hated Raymond that
moment. Not even a call or a text,I began to
realise that life isn’t what we all think it is. I
even began to know that love was just a
word used to confuse timid girls like me. He
didn’t even think about the problem I had
saved him from by not mentioning his name.
If I had a knife then,I would have killed him
and killed myself as well. …….. But who are
we to make decisions? God uses a lot of
experience to teach us lessons. I sat at the
hospital reception with a lot of thoughts in
my head. My mum arrived when the first
patient went to see the doctor. She asked
why I had not asked any of my street girls to
accompany me but I told her that I wanted to
be alone.
We were finally ushered into the doctors
office.
He checked me and said it was labour but its
starting as contraction. He inser-ted a white
drug into my b©dy and asked that I go to the
labour room and wait till my water breaks. I
got to the room and was surprised to see
three other women and a teenage girl like
me. In her own case, she was in labour but
her mum kept shouting on her that she
should die because of the shame she had
brou-ght their family. I looked at my mum and
she smiled lovingly at me.
The nurses gave me a be-d and asked that I
UnCloth and tie only my wra-pper,I shouldn’t
even put on a p@n-t. I undressed and sat
down on my be-d. Mum excused herself and
went to buy me food which I ate and sle-pt
amidst wails from other women in the room.
I woke up with that same sharp pain but this
time, it didn’t st©p. The wall clock showed it
was some minutes past five . My mum was
sitting on the be-d looking at me. I let out a
scream and she held me,asking me not to
cry,that if I do,I’ll continue to cry during each
labour but if I stayed strong,that it will be
easy for me the next time. The pain even
increa-sed as she said that. Next thing I
knew,I was running Unclad in the
room,beating my mum,praying and asking
God to take my life. None of the women had
given birth by that time.
Remembering my mum’s words,I swallowed
my pain but didn’t st©p hitting my mum. She
endured them all,even ru-bbe-d my w@!st to
help reduce the pains. I started having a
discharge of blood and white mucus. The
pain didn’t st©p as well. I cried silently and
wished for death to come as the pain was
much and not st©pping at all.
Tbc