Peruvian baby

A woman and her husband came to my birth center with no appointment.
They were both quite shy and spoke little English. I found out they were from Peru and they were looking for a Midwife to attend their baby's birth.
Although the dad, I'll call him Albert was very shy, he did have a fairly good grasp of our language.
I got one of my Mennonite translators/assistants to help fill in the gaps for the things I needed to know.
This new couple were very accomplished in their country and held very high paying proffesional jobs.
They did menial jobs here in the USA.
Mom told me she was a high rank OB nurse for a famous hospital in their capitol.
They were a very sweet couple, he of average height and weight, she was maybe 4'7" and very petiet.
This was their first baby and they wanted to give birth at my birth center and they were very much looking forward to this upcoming birth. Many babies are born at home or maternity centers in Peru, and although she was an OB nurse they didn't want that experience for them.
Maria was quite healthy and I didn't forsee any complications with her birth, there was usually a worried look on her face. They and I had a good relationship and found much to laugh and enjoy about working with each other. Like many Hispanic people in my practice they were anxious to teach me their language. Much of the laughing was about my spanish speaking, but they were delighted that I was honoring them by trying.
In the last 2 months of her pregnancy Maria admitted to me she was worried about her birth. Not about "the pain" or anything else, just she hoped that her baby wasn't too big to come out.
Oh no, Did our American ways travel that far to Peru? She told me about the Peruvian hospitals nurses and Doctors.
Most Peruvian people are on the smaller size, and so end up with smaller baby's. (3 to 5lb range)
She was worried because Albert came from another Peruvian area that "grew bigger people", and she was worried that because he was of "big"average height her baby would be TOO big.
Nothing I could say helped her get rid of her fears.
One day, she was there for a prenatal visit and we had a heart to heart talk. She said she believed in GOD and she knew GOD had lead her to me. I thanked her for that, but I went on to ask her did she truly believe? She looked at me like I was crazy, but I told her that GOD was perfect right? She said yes, and I went on to tell her that in his wisdom he allowed women to give birth to the babies those mothers grew. That a woman that ate good foods and was healthy gave birth to healthy babies. If GOD was wrong then his people would have died many years ago because none of those babies could have come out, and instead there are millions of us on the earth.
Maria sat there for a few minutes until she started smiling and said she had never thought of it that way, and perhaps I was right.
She went on to tell me that the way the Peruvian Doctors and nurses felt like if they screamed and treated their laboring women horrible that those women simply would hurry up and give birth.  I couldn't believe it. How horrible is that??
I explained I wasn't like that, and that we were there to help her and Albert give birth. In fact we really didn't help unless there was a problem. I explained that because my translator and I knew she could give birth we just let her do what her body told her what to do, that I basically was there to "catch" her baby.
She asked if I would yell at her and I said NO WAY. I told her she could have her favorite music or anything else she could think of to make her happy in labor. She asked me if she could drink mate and I said yes and that she could eat also.
Her and Albert several months later came to me in labor and they did wonderful. She walked for most of the short labor and when she felt like she wanted to push she acted confused and didn't want to push. She tried standing, squatting, laying on her side, you name it we tried, but nothing worked. She wouldn't really even try to push.
Albert took me aside after about 45 minutes and said she wanted to give birth in one of the exam rooms. Ok, I thought, but why and then I remembered my exam table and the stirrups. I personally thought that was weird, but heck why not.
We moved her and everything else and she loved it and pushed her baby out within 15 minutes.She was so ready to push.
Maria and Albert gave birth to a 7lb 6 oz baby girl!
During that labor she would occasionally ask me if I was sure this baby could come out and I always smiled and said yes.
Maria and Albert came to all their postpartum and baby visits and she was very proud her baby was growing so big on her breast milk. It was a badge of honor for her to show the world she grew this daughter of hers.
When they came over to see me when the baby was 6 months old, we weighed her and she was 20 lbs and I told Maria she was going to have to quite carrying the girl and the baby carry her because she was getting so big! We all got a good laugh about that one.