October's Birth story

After taking the summer off for vacationing. I am now again attending births and have stories to share again:

Five day's before her due date, Mom calls to let me know that she has been having cramps every 10 minutes for the last several hours. It is early in the morning so she decides to try to sleep, a great plan I agree. The day passes with minor but consistent cramping. Mom catches up on lost sleep and ensures that she eats as she desires. Around 6 pm Dad calls to report that contractions have been coming every 5 minutes for the last 45 minutes and most of them last a minute in duration. I can hear Mom in the back ground and she doesn't sound like she is coping particularly well at this point. I decide it will be best if I go over to see this couple and spend some time with Mom helping her wrap her head around these "real" contractions. Mom has spontaneously decided that kneeling with her forearms on the floor with her head low is the most comfortable position. I have easy access to Mom's lower back and start rubbing smoothly with a moderate firmness across the place where her hips and sacrum join. I model to Mom how to breath slowly with each surge and soon she is coping exceptionally well. We quickly realize that he contractions become noticeably more intense and close together when she needs to urinate. So we ensure she empties her bladder every 30 -60 minutes which also ensures that she does some moving around periodically too. Around 10:00 pm Mom is becoming tired and finds that she is able to lay on her side both during and between contractions and practically falls asleep during the 4 minute breaks. I continue to rub across Mom's low back with arnica oil during each surge. Around 10:30 pm mom is starting to feel that labour is getting to be too hard. Dad helps her run a bath and I can hear her toying with the idea of going to the hospital for morphine. Contractions are lasting nearly 1.5 minutes and coming every 3 minutes. After the bath I give Mom and Dad some privacy but find it difficult to hear when she is having a contraction. I wonder if maybe they are spacing out a bit. It is not unusual for the body to do this and allow the mom to rest for a bit. Dad soon comes out and expresses his concern that contractions are getting really close and getting very intense. Sure enough I time about 4 contractions which last 1.5 minutes and come every 2.5 minutes. I suggest that now would be a good time to move to the hospital. At 2:30 am Mom is admitted to the hospital essentially fully dilated except for a small lip of cervix at the back of the baby's head. Once Mom is moved to a bed in the Labour and Delivery room she has a powerful surge that releases her membranes and sprays the intern, it's hard not to laugh! Mom soon feels the urge to push. She spends some time on her hands and knees, which is the position she's found most comfortable through the majority of labour. A nice bit of time pushing on the toilet brings the baby past her pubic bone and all that is left is the last few millimeters of vagina to pass. A bit more pushing in a side lying position and at 5am a baby boy enters this world weighing 9 lbs.

This is the way to have a baby in a hospital! Do all your labouring in the comfort of your own home and go to the hospital to give birth. I have adapted a colleagues' suggestion to her clients and now tell my clients that there are 3 reason to go to the hospital:
1) you are ready to give birth to a baby
2) you need a change of environment and the hospital is the place you need to be psychologically
3) you have changed your mind about pain medication and wish to make use of pharmacological pain relief