Champagne

It was another three baby day...there is a joke at the birth center about my shifts and how they are always busy....

She was working on her first baby.  As such, she had been working for a while and was getting tired.  She asked to leave the birth center and go to the hospital.  Many Mama's ask this at some point in the process.  We support them through it, sometimes by distracting them as we did with this lovely Mama.  I checked her and she was 8cm, yay!  In the throws of transition, she still wanted to leave.  We loved her, distracted her some more and bought an hour...then she was ready at C/0.  She was so ecstatic to be at this place, that she (as a first time Mama) pushed her little one out in 16 minutes!  Each push was so powerful, she had decided she was done and wanted to have the little one in her arms.  She was at the point of crowning, I was talking to her about slowing down and simply breathing through the rest, when with the next contraction her beautiful baby girl just POPPED out into my hands!  She literally was crowning one second and the very next second a whole baby was in my hands and she was accompanied by a shower of birth fluids that anointed us all.  My nurse and I were so stunned, and we decided that it was just like the cork and fizz from a champagne bottle.  Baby girl was welcomed with the sounds of laughter and joy.

Those Smiling Eyes

She had been at the birth center all day.  I had been very busy.  While she labored, strongly and with the support of her husband and doula, two other babies had been born.  I had been able to spend time with her.  To sit and be in her space, to feel the rhythm of her birth song.  I would have liked to spend more time with her.  Thankfully she had a wonderful doula, a doula that I know and have worked with before, so I knew she was in good hands when I could not be with her.  Eventually, I was able to concentrate souly on her. 

It was now early evening, the birth center was quiet, the subtle energy of the previous two births was light in the air. Her body and baby were making the shift, moving from opening to pushing.  She was working, walking in the hallways with her husband.  I was also walking, from her space to other spaces and back again, it seemed that there needed to be a flow.  Being still in one place was not correct for this labor. On one of my passes, I noticed that she was ever so slightly grunting at the top of her rush.  I smiled at her husband, the time was coming.  Just a few minutes later, she was in the bathroom, on the toilet.  I went to be with her and low and behold, she had brought her sweet little one to a small crown!  On her face was the most glorious smile and the happiness was shining through her eyes to lite up the small room.  She continued to smile through each push and calmly welcomed her daughter earthside. 

It was a birth surrounded by smiles, laughter and love.  It was a birth that every Mama and Baby deserve, one that characterizes why we do what we do.  All the struggles that make the birth center possible are worth every effort in these moments.