Jude
At 2:30 in the morning, I get the call to “slowly make your way here”. My clients had gone to St. Joe's in Ypsilanti two days earlier to start an induction. The midwives had been fantastic and informed her that she should call her doula. I told them I would bring my camera and get what I could, but reassured them that pictures were secondary—my true focus was on doula-ing them! On the hour drive, I sipped leftover iced coffee that I had left in the car the day before. Once I arrived, I texted and discovered they were sleeping because things had slowed down—it happens! So I tried to sleep in my car for a bit until they needed me. At 8 a.m., I got more coffee and headed up to meet them. I joined the conversation about breaking mom's water, and they decided to do it. Shortly after her water was broken, her labor intensified. For 10 hours, this mama labored with hard contractions occurring every few minutes. She was a low dose of Pitocin a drug that gives you contractions. She was so strong and determined! When she said that she was going to give up, her husband and I got her on the toilet and helped her inhale some nitrous oxide (also known as laughing gas) through a face mask. The gas helped reduce her pain, and she was able to get back into her focus zone. This was my first birth where a client used nitrous oxide, and she was able to use it whenever she desired. I have no idea what it is like to use, but it definitely seemed to help ease the intensity of those Pitocin contractions. The atmosphere was wonderfully relaxing: worship music played in the background, we had candles "lit," and lavender oil diffused into the air. Mama was quietly working so hard with each contraction to relax, so we gave her space and did not interrupt. At the hospital's shift change, mom started sounding pushy.
Let me just say that pushing with a first baby is weird because it's a whole new feeling. You spend hours just hanging on for the wild ride that are contractions, and you try so hard to check out and just let your body do what it was created to do, and then suddenly, you get to do something!! But it takes a while sometimes, and first-time moms change positions a lot, trying to figure out how to partner with their own bodies. However, they battle utter exhaustion because they are the most tired they've ever been in their life, and the thought of having to do more work is completely overwhelming. This crucial time is where I encourage mommas to dig deeper, tell them they're doing an amazing job, and that they are almost done with the marathon. They don't even know they could be this strong!
Dad had planned on catching the baby, and he did a fantastic job! My clients didn't know the sex of the baby beforehand, so dad announced as he was catching him. The midwife helped him guide the baby out--he came out super fast, when he did come out! The relief and joy was so overwhelming you could see it on both mom and dad's faces. You work so hard for something and stick to your plan even though you are so overwhelmingly tired. It's such an amazing feeling, not to mention all the crazy hormones. Dad cut the cord after 8 minutes, and then baby snuggled with mom some more. After about an hour, their son was weighed and dad did his first diaper change and swaddle. After everything settled down, (normally 2 hrs after the birth) I told them to call or text me if anything came up, and that I would see them at their home for our final postpartum visit.
The hour drive home, I just kept thinking- every time it’s always worth it!! The sleeping in my car, the 2o hours of labor support, the unexpected time away from my family in the middle of our lives-always worth it!!
