For a couple of days now, I couldn’t really sit down and concentrate on working. It was all because I was thinking too much about my pregnant girlfriend who was at home alone. I tried to concentrate on my work, but I couldn’t. The next appointment with the doctor was today and it could be the last one before the birth of the baby.

This morning, I woke up earlier than I usually do. I came downstairs to do the housework. I did the washing and ironing first and then I went out to buy some food for Tai. After I got back, I checked that there wasn’t anything else to be done and then I went up to the bedroom to change my clothes and wake her up. I told her that I was going to go to work and the food was downstairs. She nodded and gave me a kiss before she went back to sleep. I then left home with a very worried feeling about her.

Really, I didn’t want to go to work today because I wanted to be with her. I knew that she wasn’t strong compared to other pregnant women. I think it is because I looked after her too much and didn’t let her do anything around the house. It was a mistake because that made her lazy. I should have listened when my mum and my grandmum said to me, “Tell Tai to keep doing things, the more she moves around, the easier it will be for her to give birth”.

At lunchtime I called Tai’s PCT but she didn’t pick up. I was scared that something had happened. I tried to calm myself down. But it wasn’t easy to do that. Then, a short while later Tai called! I quickly answered the phone and asked, “Where are you? Are you OK? Why didn’t you answer the phone?” She said, “I turned the sound off as soon as you left home. I am just arriving at Paknam market.” I told her to meet me at the hospital. I felt so much better and all of the bad feelings were gone.

Luckily the hospital is just across the road. I ran outside and I was there as she arrived in the taxi. We went inside and almost straight away we went in to see the doctor. The nurse took Tai to the other side of the curtain and asked her to lie down. A few minutes later, Tai came out and told me that the nurse was just checking her uterus. It was a little wider than last week and nearly wide enough. We then went to sit down and talk to the doctor. He asked Tai about how she felt.

She replied, “I am feeling good and really happy that I am going to be a mother very soon. I want to see the baby’s face!” Then she added, “I don’t know why but the baby didn’t really move much these last few days”. After the doctor heard that he said, “That is serious. I think we need to check the health of the baby inside the womb. It will take a few hours for that, would you like to do it?” Tai didn’t say anything. I quickly said yes to the doctor. Tai’s face had no smile and she looked very sad.

We went up to the second floor in the lift. We both held hands very tightly until we got to the front of the lab. I then touched her head and rubbed softly a few times before I smiled at her and said “Don’t worry, our baby is very strong. Can you remember how hard she always kicked you? The baby is fine, I know. But, it doesn’t hurt to check does it?” She nodded and walked in while I stood outside and waited alone. I was wishing and hoping that our baby was going to be fine and have good health.

I waited for more than one hour for Tai to come out from the lab. When she finally came out, I quickly went to ask her the results. She said everything was fine; nothing had gone wrong with the baby. After I heard that, I felt so much better than I ever felt before. We went down to meet the doctor again and received a prescription for some medicine. It surprised me a little because it cost more than a thousand baht! It is certainly costing us a lot of money now.

We then took a samlor to the market to eat. While we were eating, Tai started to feel strange. It wasn’t anything to do with the baby, it was different this time. She started to be sick and puked out what she had just eaten. Then she felt faint and couldn’t walk because her stomach was hurting. I quickly paid for the food and took her back to the hospital.

We went straight to the doctor’s room. There was someone else inside the room but I didn’t care. I was panicking and scared and didn’t know what to do. Tai went to lie down and was waiting for the doctor.

After the doctor checked everything, he said there was nothing wrong with her. He said it was maybe a warning that it was nearly time and that there was nothing to worry about. I believed what the doctor said but I still felt uncomfortable with it.

Tai was talking to the doctor about giving birth as soon as she could. The doctor was telling her that he could give her a Caesarean Section to get the baby out. After she heard that, Tai told the doctor that she wanted to do that. I agreed with her about having an operation because I could see that she was too weak to have the baby the normal way. Plus we both wanted to see the baby as soon as we could!

Someone then came with a wheelchair to take Tai and myself up to a room. I decided myself that I would like her to be in a special room, a room that she would be alone and not with other patients. Tai got changed and then the nurse came in and told her that she could only eat until midnight. And after that she couldn’t eat or drink anymore until after she had the operation tomorrow.

After she heard that, she started to get scared about the operation. I told her that we both had already made a decision so we couldn’t change our minds now. Then I called everyone and told them about what had happened. I felt depressed that even though they listened no one said they would come and visit us. We would sleep here alone tonight.

In the morning I was very tired as I hadn’t slept much. Tai hadn’t eaten anything since last night. We thought she would go for the operation in the morning but we found out that as we are both only 18 we needed a parent’s signature for the operation. I was still angry with my parents for not coming to visit so we rang Tai’s mother. She agreed to come later in the morning.

A few hours later everything was ready. The nurse came and took Tai to the operating room. I was holding her hand very tightly and kept saying that she would be fine. I kissed her on her forehead before she went in. I wanted to go with her but they wouldn’t let me.

I couldn’t stand still or think about anything else right then. Tai’s mum came to me and told me that she was going to go back to work and asked me to call her later. I said OK and kept on walking up and down in front of the doors. I was starting to get worried that something might go wrong during the operation and I wouldn’t see Tai again.