On this week’s episode of MTV Base’ Mike + Perri Celebrity Bumps, plans go south for the new parents, Mike Edwards and Perri Shakes-Dayton, as Perri goes into labour two weeks before her due date, resulting in panicked road trips to the hospital.
Despite preparations and plans to have a smooth-sailing water birth at a birthing centre, the new parents are left without a birthing suite available for them to welcome their son to the world. As they wait through Perri’s unbearable contraction pains, husband, Mike Edwards, confesses, “I am feeling really helpless at this moment. There is only so much I can do for her”
With the doctor’s instruction for the labouring mother to be transferred to a hospital for proper monitoring, Mike is made to ride behind the ambulance transporting his wife and son to the hospital. With grave discomfort and pain, fear and uncertainty, Perri is willing herself to stay positive for her baby.
“Being in the ambulance without Mike, I felt alone. Black women are 5 times more likely to die during childbirth. That was the thought that came to my mind, and I had to force myself into not thinking about dying at that moment. The pain is extremely bad, and I just keep thinking, ‘am I going to be okay? Is my baby going to be okay?’” she said.
After 9 hours of painful labour, the parents were able to get a bathing pool as planned. Perri delivered their healthy baby boy with the joy, excitement and exhaustion of the night telling on their faces. Perri could not hide her joy as her suckling son was happily feeding, “after all that pain I went through, I can say that the pain was worth it!”
“The king is born, and finally, I am getting the opportunity to hold my son in my hands for the first time. Words cannot describe how my emotions are right now,” Mike said.
