A race for the lucky day
As you are all aware, yesterday was the 7th of July, making the numeral date 07.07.07.
Apparantly everywhere was booked solid for weddings, and several of my clients thought it would be neat to have their babies that day.
At noon I was paged with a mom in early labour. We talked and determined that it wasn't quite time for me to come yet. Shortly after 15:00 she paged again and I went out to see her. She was 2 cm and about 60% effaced with the head at -2. Her contractions were only 30-40 seconds long and she was talking through them no problem. I told her that it wasn't quite time for me to stay yet, and to call me when the contractions were longer (45-60 seconds) and stronger.
She repaged at 19:45 and when I went to her place and checked her at 20:10 she was a generous 3 cm and 95% effaced with the head lower at -1. Since she was GBS positive I started up her IV and she continued to labour. She walked around for a while, with contractions gradually getting closer.
She had a tub set up as she wanted a waterbirth, but with her contractions still only 5 minutes apart and 45 seconds long, I didn't think it was quite time to get in, I wanted labour to really get going first. So she walked around for a while and they got closer together, then she sat on the birth ball for about an hour and they spaced out to every 4-5 minutes again. So I recommended she get up and walk her stairs. That really got them going - every 2-3 minutes, and she was starting to have extra rectal pressure. "I feel like I have to poop and can't!" As I normally do, I said "That feeling is the baby moving down and pressing on your rectum - that poop has arms and legs!" Most mums aren't too amused with this humour (maybe I should reconsider my wording...), but she laughed, which left me wondering if she was indeed entering transition. This was around 2300. But, with strong contractions and rectal pressure, I recommended the tub. She climbed in, and between contractions continued to watch the Live Earth concert that was on TV. Her contractions briefly spaced out but gradually got close and then midnight passed, rats! About 10 minutes later, she started making grunting noises... her water broke, and she had her baby beautifully at 0020!
It was a beautiful birth and the mom coped just wonderfully! Baby girl, 8#13oz.
[Sidebar: this birth was the second in my career where my backup midwife didn't make it for the delivery because the pushing went too fast!]
Apparantly everywhere was booked solid for weddings, and several of my clients thought it would be neat to have their babies that day.
At noon I was paged with a mom in early labour. We talked and determined that it wasn't quite time for me to come yet. Shortly after 15:00 she paged again and I went out to see her. She was 2 cm and about 60% effaced with the head at -2. Her contractions were only 30-40 seconds long and she was talking through them no problem. I told her that it wasn't quite time for me to stay yet, and to call me when the contractions were longer (45-60 seconds) and stronger.
She repaged at 19:45 and when I went to her place and checked her at 20:10 she was a generous 3 cm and 95% effaced with the head lower at -1. Since she was GBS positive I started up her IV and she continued to labour. She walked around for a while, with contractions gradually getting closer.
She had a tub set up as she wanted a waterbirth, but with her contractions still only 5 minutes apart and 45 seconds long, I didn't think it was quite time to get in, I wanted labour to really get going first. So she walked around for a while and they got closer together, then she sat on the birth ball for about an hour and they spaced out to every 4-5 minutes again. So I recommended she get up and walk her stairs. That really got them going - every 2-3 minutes, and she was starting to have extra rectal pressure. "I feel like I have to poop and can't!" As I normally do, I said "That feeling is the baby moving down and pressing on your rectum - that poop has arms and legs!" Most mums aren't too amused with this humour (maybe I should reconsider my wording...), but she laughed, which left me wondering if she was indeed entering transition. This was around 2300. But, with strong contractions and rectal pressure, I recommended the tub. She climbed in, and between contractions continued to watch the Live Earth concert that was on TV. Her contractions briefly spaced out but gradually got close and then midnight passed, rats! About 10 minutes later, she started making grunting noises... her water broke, and she had her baby beautifully at 0020!
It was a beautiful birth and the mom coped just wonderfully! Baby girl, 8#13oz.
[Sidebar: this birth was the second in my career where my backup midwife didn't make it for the delivery because the pushing went too fast!]
posted by Stork at 2:55 PM
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