Bonus Babies

June 26, 2010

The account of two births with primips (first-time mamas) who came to us last minute.  I had thought we were done with our births for June, but shows what I know!

The first client came to us at 39 weeks 5 days. She had been planning a hospital birth, but not looking forward to it. A friend suggested she come meet us, which she did, and made plans to birth here. She was dilating without any pain and began gentle induction measures at 41 weeks, which got her to 5cm easily. At 41 weeks, 3 days, she turned to castor oil in the morning before coming over for a Non-Stress Test (listening to make sure the baby responds well to stimulus and movement), and it worked great for her. She labored with her honey and two supportive friends, in addition to myself and the two experienced midwives. She was so lovely and gracious throughout. Pushing was under 10 minutes and a lovely daughter was born with mama on the birth stool reclining in her sweetheart’s arms.  Family is doing well.  Very straightforward and beautiful.

The second unexpected clients had been planning to birth unattended in the ocean, which sounds lovely but happens to be at a beach without cell phone reception, a hike up to the road and a half-hour from the nearest hospital.  A current client met her and recommended they come meet us and birth here.  There was hesitation on their part, but eventually they called and came by at 41 weeks, 5 days.  At this point, mama above is laboring in the other room.  They hung out and chatted, we discussed options, and they left.  We had that baby last night at 9 and got to bed at a decent hour: things were spaced so perfectly I’ve not lost any sleep yet!  This morning, this mama called in early labor and came over about 11.  She dilated quickly and started pushing when she was complete, but baby wasn’t coming down.  My preceptor ruptured her membranes and the baby came down, but her cervix closed up a bit, so she went back to breathing through contractions while she re-dilated.  This mama labored quietly–she had a serenity to her that seemed un-earned in someone her age.  Baby born by 3, also on the birth stool.  I missed getting to see the nuchal hand because the mama was leaning on me.  Baby needed a little resuscitation but is fine.  Mama has a small sublabial tear and another perineal tear from the nuchal hand, but nothing requiring stitches.  As of now, they’ve not cut the cord and are planning a lotus birth (allowing the placenta to stay attached to the baby until it falls off by itself).

In the past 2 days, I’ve gotten to see:

• 2 amniotomies–my preceptor actually offered to let me perform the first one, as the client is comfortable with me learning on her, but I’d never seen one and wanted to at least watch one before doing it myself; the second client was hesitant about procedures, so we let the experienced midwives do them
• 2 anterior lips
• a nuchal hand
• a small placenta with thin cord (that was otherwise perfect and sustained a lovely healthy baby past 41 weeks!)
• trailing membranes

…and I’ve also performed 3 blood type tests and facilitated a discussion on Rh-sensitization and Rhogam. Fun stuff.

Tags: Birth Stories

Author Bio: Jasper Moon, CPM LMT (they/ them)

Perinatal care specialist. Parent of two. Hosted three fetuses: my big kid, a surrogacy in the middle, and my little kid. Vegan; drinks a lot of tea. Board game (and general) geek. Goat hugger extraordinaire.

Read more about Jasper here.