Missed Births

September 1, 2010

The entire month of August, I attended zero births, which is wild considering our practice had 5 EDDs on the calendar for the month.  My preceptor attended 3, but I managed to miss all of them, and the 2 other August mamas went over into September.  This is the story of the births for which I wasn’t there.

The first was a matter of timing, in that I was sent to Oahu for the day to attend Michel Odent’s lecture.  I was gone 10 hours, and that was plenty long enough for this mama to start and finish without me.  Michel Odent’s lecture was pretty awesome, although geared toward the general public (lots of pregnant mamas and labor doulas) so for me it was mostly a refresher on stuff we learned from Holly.  His main topic was about how adrenaline and oxytocin are set up as antagonists, and the implications for birth.  Dree and I did have a nice time hanging out in Honolulu, though.  We went to my favorite “local” beach, but in the past 5 years, the tourists have apparently found it, because the place was packed.  We also got to ride a lot of city buses and be disappointed that the vegan dim sum place was closed.

The second birth I knew I’d miss, as my preceptor was being flown out to the virgin islands to attend, and no way was I going to come up with that airfare!

The third August missed birth was a young client who chose not to have me at her birth because I look just like someone she dislikes intensely; I think her ex’s sister.  This was a great exercise in not taking things personally when they are clearly not about me.  Lessons for the ego.

I’m not going to re-relate the actual birth stories because they are not mine to tell.  I only get to tell MY story, which was the story of not being there.  They were all lovely, though.  I’ve seen pictures.

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.