And Tantrum Makes Three....

It was a good to have a baby...I had two lovely first time Mama's working on their little ones. The sun was shining, the flowers were out and the sky was sapphire blue. Day time births are less common and so seem somehow different and rare to me.....

Andrea's water had broken the day before, early in the morning. It was well over 24 hours later and her labor was flirting around the edges....not quite ready to take off, and Andrea was on the verge of losing her steam. She came in with her Mom, Susan, who was such a great support. Andrea's husband is in the military and is deployed overseas, which of course was difficult for her. We did an NST (non stress test) and her babe looked good. We decided to try and help her labor along. We sat down and had a good talk about how she was feeling, about letting go of wanting/missing her husband and letting her labor happen and I gave her an herbal tincture. Then I sent Andrea and her Mom out to get some lunch and to go for a nice walk.

Meanwhile, another Mama, Ellen was ready to come in with her husband. She was laboring beautifully, really letting her body go with the flow and opening up to it. Her husband was great and just followed her lead. It is so wonderful to see couples at this time, working well together and being present to see the love they share.

Andrea came back from her outing and had good news....she was able to call her husband and he was going to be able to be on the phone, on speaker, to be "with" her during the birth! It was great...somewhere from a ship, somewhere in the world...he was at least able to be present with us. Her labor was picking up a little bit, but still not too strong. We decided to try the breast pump and after a "round" of that.....she kicked into serious gear. After an hour of serious, consistent contractions I checked her cervix for the very first time since her water breaking and she was 4cm....great news! She got in the pool and we all settled in for the work. She talked to her husband a lot and despite the distance the love was so palpable in the room. Literally, 30 minutes later, Andrea said she had to push! A quick cervical check...she was C/+1 and after 24 minutes of beautiful, instinctual pushing a beautiful baby girl was welcomed to the world.

Not long after that birth, Ellen was ready to welcome her sweet babe. Ellen was complete...but not ready to push...instead she paced and paced, unable to relax. She did not like the sensations and seemed to try and run away from them. She was fidgety and had a lot of trouble getting into the work of pushing. I have seen other ladies do this and eventually they stop "running" away and get into it. Just over an hour later, Ellen was getting frustrated....her energy was spilling over and she was busy trying to contain it. I felt that she needed to have a "melt down", let the energy go and move forward....and then it happened. Ellen threw a temper tantrum; seriously stomping around the room, crossing her arms, pouting her lips and kicking things!...in true three year old style!! She was saying things like wanting to the hospital, this "sucks", whose dumb idea was this, etc. I was actually happy and trying not to laugh, this needed to happen...and after she calmed down, Ellen sat on the birth stool and gracefully with strength pushed out her gorgeous baby girl.

Every birth is a gift and teaches me new things. These births were very different but had one thing in common: a true and genuine love between a man and a woman, that was supportive and strong. One was witnessed in person and the other was felt from a distance but both were amazing.