Friday started I started out exhausted, after several nights of poor sleep. I was hormonal and emotional so I drove an hour to the coast (Galveston , TX
My phone rang.
We expected a slow weekend, but off to the birth center I went....for a 17 hour labor ride.
My preceptor should have sent her home – she said so herself: Friday 8pm – Saturday 1pm with two 20 minute naps at some point in the middle of the night while I played the hypnobirth CD for the patient and she was able to rest.
Admittedly, I was really glad that I was there for this woman – she struggled through labor, even during "prelabor"…the time she "should have" gone home before the contractions were at their strongest and before they were really causing cervical change. I wouldn't trade anything for sitting with a woman in labor - doing laps up and down the hall, rubbing her back, looking into her eyes and breathing with her to help pace her breathing. Running her bath and slowly pouring water over her contracting belly - hard as a rock every 2 minutes or so. It's beautiful and I do it happily. But by 6am, still no baby, I thought I might fall over head first into the tub where she sat. Fortunately, I stayed up right and present somehow. I have no idea how I. Your energy changes when you're in the presence of a woman in labor. Your peace and patience increases and your senses become more acute.
But, by 7:30 I was struggling. Now, with my preceptor up, I suggested that I go take a nap for a while. "No" she says, "there is another woman coming in". Someone else in labor. By then my energy stores seemed depleted and I didn't think I had it in me to support two laboring women after 24 hours without sleep.
But the woman who came in was in active labor – it was her third child and she'd stayed at home until she knew she was getting close. She arrived at 8am, we gave her IV penicillin and she and her husband began to labor together beautifully with complete concentration and connection. I returned to my first patient who begged me to do *something* to help things along.
9am – we broke the bag of water for the first woman. A painless procedure, it removes the padding of water below the head, so the head sits directly on the cervix and helps it dilate more quickly. The hormones created by the "rupture" also speed up labor and create more painful contractions. I told her to try and walk again – that combined with the ruptured membranes would surely move things along.
Back to room number two – laboring well, baby healthy (good heart rate). I don't want to disrupt/intrude into their focused energy, so I leave the room.
Woman one is in tears in the hallway – it hurts SO much! I can't walk. Ok, back to the tub (for the third time) – it does wonders. I support her down the hallways her tears falling onto my scrub top. Encouraging words. Quickly run her bath. In she goes. I get her husband to kneel by the tub and look into her eyes to help her breathe. I'm summoned to the other room
9:30 "She needs to push" – run into room 2 calling for my preceptor and quickly put on some latex free gloves – this woman has a latex allergy. We rush in soon after she's climbed into bed and is determined to get this baby out.
She's powerful and focused.
9:32 "It's a girl" we sumersault her out because the cord is tight around her neck – too tight to pull over her head, so we keep it close to the mom's body and "sumersault" the body around it. Cord loose, it can be removed. She goes onto mama's tummy with a healthy cry.
Baby's cry in this room is quickly followed by mama's cry in the next room. "Don't do anything and stay here" my preceptor says as she runs out.
Boy it worked to rupture her membranes – we should have done it at 1am!
9:35 "It's a girl" Baby 1 is born in the water in the next room. I missed it! I'd labored with her for over 13 hours and I was stuck in the other room for the birth of her baby. My preceptor caught it. I was sad and consoled only by the fact that the mama told me that she wished I'd been there. *smile*
3.5 hours of post partum vital signs, baby temps, baths, breastfeeding and bleeding monitoring. I alternated between rooms and tried to get everything done on time for the two women who delivered nearly at the same moment.
Somehow, I made it through. Adrenaline during birth removes all weariness, but as tasks are finished and mothers are left to bond with their new treasures, exhaustion (re)sets in. I fought off renewed nausea and delirium.
1pm – we send both mama's home. My preceptor is out the door before they are even packed up. I'm left with the doula. So, we make sure both families have been given all the necessary information, have car seats that work and we walk them down to their cars (both moms' turn down a chauffeured wheelchair).
1:45: Home – 4ish hrs of sleep - trying to pace myself so I would sleep that night and get back on a regular schedule. Get up and eat and start a movie before heading to bed for a well deserved full night of sleep.
Psych!
9:15pm Saturday - called in again. I cried when I hung up the phone. I sat on my bed with my head in my hands and cried. I was sure I couldn't do it - sure this would push my body and mind past what it was capable of. Still, I took a deep breath, donned my scrubs, packed a sandwich and apple and got back in my car. I cried in the car too, but pulled it together by the time I arrived at the birth center.
9:30pm - 4am - labor, birth, post partum. Strong, beautiful Mexican woman – I got to practice my Spanish. Gorgeous experience. I hardly noticed I was awake - second wind kind of thing, I guess. Beautiful baby girl was born just after midnight. But, I did everything myself. It was a pretty small baby and I maneuvered her easily from perineum to abdomen. Cord cut. Blood collected.
I pulled out the placenta without even a thought of being woozy. This is a first. Twelfth placenta and the first time I didn't feel scared. Wow. Maybe I really CAN be a midwife. Isn't that nice!
We always want the mama to eat before she gets up to toilet and bathe after giving birth. This was my lucky midnight. No fast-food for these lovely people. Home made Mexican fajita soft tacos. They appreciated me – labor support, attempt at Spanish and love – and offered me to share in their meal.
Tacos at 1am have NEVER tasted so good.
They wanted to go home. I wanted to go home. I woke my preceptor at 3:30 to discharge them. She was gone before I returned from walking them to their car and I was not far behind.
Slept from 4am - 11am. Not well once the sun came up, but I was in my bed, my precious bed – didn't even both to remove the clothes that were scattered on top of it before climbing in.
Went for a run Sunday and for the first few blocks my body cursed me with every step. My joints, my muscles and all the surrounding cells screamed at me. But, I pushed through and the endorphins kicked in. After the run, yoga and some delicious home-made tortilla soup, my body felt almost normal, though still tired, again. The newly grown bags under my eyes give me away, but that's what cucumbers are for, right?
This journey into midwifery is intense!
