Under the Weather but On Top of the World

This week was filled with challenges and joys.

Most of the children have been in various overlapping stages of a nasty respiratory virus which includes runny noses, coughing, head and body aches, fevers up to 103, lost appetite, lost sleep, and lots of whining/crying/sniveling. We have run through an unusual amount of homeopathic, herbal and allopathic cold remedies.

Gavin is the only one of the children to have avoided the virus up to this point. Bryan had his turn with it last weekend and I am living on Echinacea Elder tea and Vitamin C in hopes of warding off the bad bugs. We haven't accomplished much in the way of school this week, but the children have been fed and the house is clean, except for the drifts of tissues in the living room.

The wonderful part of the week included the birth of baby Jonah! His birth was my first as a primary-under-supervision (aka intern) midwife. It went fairly smoothly with just a bit too much bleeding while waiting for the placenta to detach. I must say it was a real confidence booster to be able to handle that situation quickly and efficiently. My lovely, supervising midwife was there, ready to step in if needed. Hmmm. All this time studying and apprenticing seems to be paying off.

There is still a long road ahead- I need to serve many more women to finish my training but as of today here are my numbers:

Births I have attended as
A participant: 6 (in chronological order: Mara, Gavin, Sirena, Madelyn, Sarah and Mason)
An observer: 5
A doula: 40
The apprentice or assistant: 19
The primary: 1

I have been the baby-catcher for 5 of these precious births. My smallest catch weighed in at 5 lbs 15 oz and the biggest "little" guy tipped the scales at 11 lbs 1 oz.

Boys: 36
Girls: 32

Small numbers, to be sure, but I have worked hard to get even these numbers and I am proud of them as a good start.

Anyone need a midwife? Have birth bag, will travel.

You might be a midwife if...

...you use your baby scale to weigh the turkey breast you want to cook for dinner.

One of these days I'll get a kitchen scale, but this beats hopping on the bathroom scale with and without the turkey.

Name Story

Last week's breech baby is staying nicely head down and might just stay there.

For weeks his parents have been wavering between two names, Luke and Jonah. The daddy, a Star Wars buff, favored Luke. The mama favored Jonah, but most people believed that the baby's name would be Luke. Friends have embroidered that name on blankets and pillows. The baby shower invitations were for Mama and baby Luke.

As part of the attempt to turn the baby, I had recommended that they rub mama's belly in the direction we wanted the baby to turn. Last Monday evening, Daddy duly massaged her belly and baby turned! Unfortunately, he also turned himself right back to breech.

The following night, as Daddy was gently massaging Mama's belly, he said, "I have been thinking about the Jonah in the Scriptures. He kept turning away from the direction he was supposed to go. This baby reminds me of that Jonah. Maybe we are supposed to name him Jonah and if we just make that decision, he will turn and stay head down."

We'll never know for sure if this was Elohim's way of naming the baby, but he is head down and his name will be Jonah.

Happy Endings

Happy ending #1

We visited Mama #1 on Monday. It was her 36 week home visit. Last week, she asked what her options would be if the baby was breech. Although I am always happy to provide info, I don't like it when my mamas get "a feeling" about a breech baby or some other complication. Call me superstitious, but I just plain don't like it. Last week I was thrilled to find baby in a clearly head down position. Just where he was supposed to be.

You can imagine my dismay when she *again* said that she was worried about baby being breech. He was so tucked my hands weren't entirely sure about his position but the location of his heartbeat confirmed his mama's suspicion. Breech. We went over some activities for encouraging the little guy to shift his position and I promised to stop by today, Thursday, with a homeopathic remedy to help the process along.

Mama said that Daddy had been massaging her belly in the direction we wanted baby to turn when she felt a big movement. She was pretty sure that the little guy had shifted to a head down position night. She said that they had apparently turned him twice but that he seemed to keep turning back to breech. When I palpated, he was quite tightly tucked but his heartbeat was loud and clear just where I wanted it to be, which is well below his mama's belly button. Hurrah! Answered prayer & happy ending #1.

Happy Ending #2

The phone rang at 8:20 pm. My senior midwife was calling to ask if I could run over and check heart tones on a mama who was spotting. Mama #2 is about 13 weeks along with her 5th pregnancy and has seen enough blood in the past 2 days to make her anxious for her baby. I threw on some clothes, I was already in my jammies when D called, and drove over to have a listen for baby. The door was answered by her 7 year-old son and the other children, ages 9, 4 and 2, were playing nearby. The mood was decidedly worried. I brought out my doppler and started hunting for baby. The children clustered around me as I knelt by the couch and probed their mama's tummy. For the longest time I could only hear mama's strong pulse. By longest time I mean 3 - 5 minutes- an eternity if you are waiting to learn if your baby is still alive.

We were all growing a bit solemn as I tried angle after angle in an attempt to hear that quick and reassuring thump-thump-thump-thump. It occured to me, a bit late, that it was possible her uterus was higher than I expected for 13 weeks. Yep. Her fundus, the top of her uterus, was more where I might expect a 16 or 17 week pregnancy to be. Once I began listening near the fundus, we heard a delightfully strong and fast little heartbeat. Baby is absolutely alive and quite active, too, to judge by the amount of chasing I had to do to track him down for a second chance to hear his heartbeat.

Relief flooded the room. Mama looked straight into Daddy's eyes and smiled.

Definitely a happy ending.

Excited, or is that Terrified?

I am filled with both excitement and terror as I announce that after 5 years of apprenticing, I am now a primary midwife, under supervision. This means I am taking client's of my own but still remain under the watchful eye of my lovely supervising midwife. If I was a bit more limber I would be turning cartwheels with excitement. Or course, the great weight of responsilibity gives me nightmares on occasion.

More good news is that I actually have clients to take! This week I have interviewed with 2 families, both of whom have chosen to work with me. I am honored and do not take this precious responsibility lightly. My heart is full as I anticipate the coming months in which I will be building relationship with these mamas and their growing baby-bellies.

May the Lord watch over these growing wee ones and grant me wisdom to give their mamas the care they need for safe deliveries.