lisasbirthmoms

It was a Monday morning and I had a
schedule prenatal visit with my daughter
Missy, when she arrived at my home for
the exam, she stated that she "thought her
fore waters may had broke, but she wasn’t
sure, would I check her and see if she was
any more dilated”, she had been sitting at
2 cm for the last 10 days or so and was
anxious to see if the Braxton-Hicks had
done any more of the job. The date was
august 1st 2005, and her due date was
august the 4th. I did the usual prenatal
assessments, and then I did a vaginal, and
found that her fore waters were gone, I
told her that labor should start at any time
and that she should get a good healthy
meal and get some rest, as she had a lot of
work ahead. We went out to lunch and
then I dropped her off at her home to take
a nap, I would come back and get her
when she felt like she needed me, We had
planned for her to give birth at my home.

I went home and did a little house
cleaning, checked to make sure we had
every thing we needed for the birth, and
then tried to get a nap in myself.

Missy called me around 4:30pm and said she felt like she needed to
come over. Now keep in mind Missy has been assisting me at births for
the last 10 years, she has heard everything I’ve had to say about birth
many times and has seen me deliver many, many babies. No one who
isn’t a midwife knows more about natural birth. I went to her home and
picked her up; the contractions were about 12 – 15 minutes apart and
lasting approximately 30 sec. Upon arriving at my home I found her to
be 3cm dilated and 90% effaced. I had an appointment that evening
about 45 min away in the mountains close to my home, Missy knew I
had this appointment and assured me she would be fine to go ahead, so
reluctantly I went.

At 7: 45pm I was on my way home, about 10 minutes from home I got
an urge to call Missy and see how she was. When she answered and
heard it was me, the first thing she said was, "Where are you?” I told
her I was 10 minutes away, all she said was “ I need you.” I told her I
would be there soon, and hung up to concentrate on driving. (it was
raining pretty hard)

When I got home I found Missy in the bathroom, having a hard time
with the contractions. I have been at hundreds of births, and I love all of
my clients, but I can’t tell you how different it is to see your own child in
hard labor. I helped her get a hold of herself, showed her how to ride
the wave instead of being drowned by it, then I checked her, she was
4cm and 100% effaced, I told her it was probably going to be a long
night, and we should get her into the tub to ease some of the back labor
she was feeling, she got into the tub at 8:10, that helped a lot, she
breathed through her contractions with me coaching her and relaxed
completely in between. After only being in the tub for 10 minutes, she
asked me to check her again, I did, and she had dilated to 6cm, to my
surprise. Unfortunately, we had nothing laid out for the birth, my
assistant had just been notified that we were in labor and hadn’t arrived
yet. So I coached her during the contractions, and ran around getting
everything set up in between. At 8:35 Missy said mom I know you told
me not to push unless I let you check me to make sure I am fully
dilated, but I think the baby is coming , and I swear I’m not pushing. I
checked her again and she was complete. We got her out of the tub and
on to the bed, were she started pushing her baby out. During the
contractions I was in midwife mode, and did my job encouraging and
stretching her, but in between I kept slipping into mom mode at which
time she would calm me down, back and forth it went, “ push Missy,
good job, your doing great , breath”, then” It’s okay, Mom, you're doing
great, stay strong for me, breath”. Back and forth it went, till the most
beautiful baby I have ever seen was born at 8:58pm. All pink and
crying, I wanted to cry myself, I think I did a little, but I still had to take
care of my baby and the delivery of the placenta.