A week ago today I witnessed the miracle of birth for the very first time! It was AMAZING, and happened so fast that I was only on the other side of the bedroom and almost MISSED it! We, my mother (the senior midwife) and I, had been with the mom-to-be since about 3:00am that Friday morning while she labored in the Jacuzzi. Her labor was progressing but her water had not broken, and she was getting tired. (she had been in mild labor since sometime Thursday) At about 5:10am Mom asked me to sterilize and extra little clamp that could be used to snip the amniotic sac if the baby was born without it having broken. At this point we thought that we were still a ways away from having a baby and the Father was actually watching sports in the living room. :)
All of a sudden there was a shout from the bedroom so he and I dashed in to see what was going on! The next few minutes are a little blurred but I'm going to try and piece them together for y'all. ;) Let me set the stage for you first; picture a cozy little cottage room with two twin beds, the one on the left is all prepped for a birth, the bed on the right (and closest to the bathroom with the Jacuzzi) is not set up for a birth. Naturally, as is always the case with Murphy's law, the Mom had only made it to the right bed when that monster contraction hit and brought her husband and I running in. When we got into the room the Mother-to-be was still on the edge of the right bed and my Mom was kneeling by her in the narrow (like only 2 1/2 feet) space between the bed and the wall. Mom then gave directions for the Dad to get behind the Mother and support her from behind, and for me to get her the box of gloves which she thought she had left in the bathroom. I squeezed past her (literally squeezed) into the bathroom, only to discover that she had moved them to the night stand of the left bed in preparation of the birth. Just then the Mother's water broke! All over the bed, the floor, and my Mom! I then squeezed back past my Mom, through the puddle of amniotic fluid on the floor, and quickly made my way over to the other side of the bed to get the gloves.
Then, just as I was about to hand Mom the gloves, with one final contraction and NO PUSHING the baby practically flew out!!! I kid you not! He (it was a boy) pretty much just fell out after the membrane that had been holding him back had broken. Mom caught him in mid air, I grabbed the towel, that we had laid out to wrap him in, and wrapped him up all in the space of about thirty seconds!! Then while I held the baby Mom clamped and cut the cord so that we could easily move the Mother over to the prepared bed. We were all astonished at how fast he was born, excited that he was here, and happy to see him!! After that we weighed and measured the baby, checked him to make sure that there were 10 fingers and 10 toes and everything else was where it was supposed to be.
After the placenta was delivered the Mother had lost a fair amount of blood and couldn't get up without being dizzy so we gave her a sponge bath, remade the right bed and made her comfortable on it so she could rest.
All in all it was quite the extraordinary event and I was thrilled to have been there!!
Until next time...
~Megan
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