Ok, I am now a traveling midwife, and I love it. I'll probably do this for at least several yrs. This way I can offer midwifery home births for people who don't have supportive midwives in their area for their births.
I flew to Bermuda on May 13 and I landed on a very beautiful island. There are no midwives there as it is illegal. The minute I landed I felt right at home like I've lived there forever.
Last winter I had been hired by a couple who wanted a home birth. Their first child was born in Canada, a transported home birth to the hospital for meconium staining. They were fine with it, but this time they wanted to try for a home birth again. I got to know the couple well as well as her family, as I was living upstairs with her mom and dad. So by the time she gave birth, it definitely was the whole family who organized the home birth. I was so grateful that Mom and I talked about not being attached to the experience of the birth, in other words she let go of all of her worries, wishes and was willing to just let the birth happen without allowing her brain take over or worry she might not get a home birth. It would be what it was.
She stayed at 3cm to 5cm for about a wk or so. She woke up in the am knowing something was going on. They got their son together to go of with Granny B for the day.
Real active labor started@ 10 am. I checked her and she was 7cm 100%. She was in good humor but you could tell where her brain was. Dad was excited, and I'm excited for the both of them. Her last birth had been about 6 hrs total- but for some reason as I'm watching her, it seemed as though something was off with this birth. She got in the birth tub, only to have her contractions slow and almost stop after about 1/2 hr in tub. I had her get back out and things started picking up. I checked her again and she was 9cm, and feeling pushy. But after 1/2 hr to 45 mins her contractions slowed to nothing. I gave her a homeopathic to get her going again. It kind of did something but not much. She got out of tub again, and was walking with her husband. She labored for awhile and all pushing urge went away. I checked her one more time, because now I suspect a head malposition, and indeed it was confirmed that she was now 7 cm and baby was coming down asynclitic. Baby was trying to come out with the right side of it's head, and it wasn't working. So, mom and dad and I talked about what was going on, baby sounded great so I started to try to reposition baby's head. Now, gals, it's not pain free with almost a full hand in you with a head down there also, but you can cope with it fairly easy and it's better than a vacuum birth or c/section. At this point we are on the tile floor, of course with all of our paper padding. Mom, dad and I are all entwined with our legs to birth this baby-so we all felt like we birthed this baby. Baby was trying to help me, but just as I got the head position right, it would turn right back to the old position. Mom now has her head under the bed, and I burst into laughter at the picture of the three of us. Mom keep up her energy and after an hr of pushing finally the head is crowning, I grabbed dad's hand and placed it on the head as it emerged, so gently. The head came out, and rotated and mom was ready with open arms. This couple greeted their newborn son, in dim lights on the floor in a cave like room, it was perfect, it was holy.
This is why I'm a midwife.
Side line- several nights before the birth, I had a dream that our wonderful doula was not at the birth and that it would only be the three of us. I told mom, and we just thought about it. The day of the birth the doula came over, all excited at being at another home birth. After being there for 15 minutes, she got a call from a couple who were birthing at the hospital. We told her we were fine and that the other couple really needed her. The dream came true.
with much love, sherri
I flew to Bermuda on May 13 and I landed on a very beautiful island. There are no midwives there as it is illegal. The minute I landed I felt right at home like I've lived there forever.
Last winter I had been hired by a couple who wanted a home birth. Their first child was born in Canada, a transported home birth to the hospital for meconium staining. They were fine with it, but this time they wanted to try for a home birth again. I got to know the couple well as well as her family, as I was living upstairs with her mom and dad. So by the time she gave birth, it definitely was the whole family who organized the home birth. I was so grateful that Mom and I talked about not being attached to the experience of the birth, in other words she let go of all of her worries, wishes and was willing to just let the birth happen without allowing her brain take over or worry she might not get a home birth. It would be what it was.
She stayed at 3cm to 5cm for about a wk or so. She woke up in the am knowing something was going on. They got their son together to go of with Granny B for the day.
Real active labor started@ 10 am. I checked her and she was 7cm 100%. She was in good humor but you could tell where her brain was. Dad was excited, and I'm excited for the both of them. Her last birth had been about 6 hrs total- but for some reason as I'm watching her, it seemed as though something was off with this birth. She got in the birth tub, only to have her contractions slow and almost stop after about 1/2 hr in tub. I had her get back out and things started picking up. I checked her again and she was 9cm, and feeling pushy. But after 1/2 hr to 45 mins her contractions slowed to nothing. I gave her a homeopathic to get her going again. It kind of did something but not much. She got out of tub again, and was walking with her husband. She labored for awhile and all pushing urge went away. I checked her one more time, because now I suspect a head malposition, and indeed it was confirmed that she was now 7 cm and baby was coming down asynclitic. Baby was trying to come out with the right side of it's head, and it wasn't working. So, mom and dad and I talked about what was going on, baby sounded great so I started to try to reposition baby's head. Now, gals, it's not pain free with almost a full hand in you with a head down there also, but you can cope with it fairly easy and it's better than a vacuum birth or c/section. At this point we are on the tile floor, of course with all of our paper padding. Mom, dad and I are all entwined with our legs to birth this baby-so we all felt like we birthed this baby. Baby was trying to help me, but just as I got the head position right, it would turn right back to the old position. Mom now has her head under the bed, and I burst into laughter at the picture of the three of us. Mom keep up her energy and after an hr of pushing finally the head is crowning, I grabbed dad's hand and placed it on the head as it emerged, so gently. The head came out, and rotated and mom was ready with open arms. This couple greeted their newborn son, in dim lights on the floor in a cave like room, it was perfect, it was holy.
This is why I'm a midwife.
Side line- several nights before the birth, I had a dream that our wonderful doula was not at the birth and that it would only be the three of us. I told mom, and we just thought about it. The day of the birth the doula came over, all excited at being at another home birth. After being there for 15 minutes, she got a call from a couple who were birthing at the hospital. We told her we were fine and that the other couple really needed her. The dream came true.
with much love, sherri
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