G1 Superstar!

Midnight births are the best! I’m serious. I love night births!

I wish every baby could be born at night! It’s quiet. It’s calm. And there are not tons of looky-lous bottlenecking the clinic halls, trying to come in the birth room.

You have to REALLY want to be at the birth to come in the middle of the night... especially in the rain. So, when I was called for a birth last night, I was happy.

I was happy because it was midnight. I was happy because it feels like ages since I delivered a slimmy-gook-covered-miracle! I was ready to rock ‘n roll!

But when I got there, she didn’t look in labor. She was too calm... and in a GI (aka: first time mom) that’s a sign you still have quite a ways to go. But I was wrong. She was definitely in labor with contractions every ten minutes, but they were disappointingly short.

I taught her about what to expect in labor, prayed for her and sent her home. I didn’t even bother to do a vaginal exam (women here often resist them... not having much experience with them). Frankly, I didn’t want to scare her.

I told her to come back right away if her water broke and if her contractions got longer and closer together. She agreed and went home to rest. I went back to sleep.

About four hours later she came back. Her water broke but she still seemed just as calm. I decided it was time to check her dilation. She was already fully with the head at a plus 3 station!

What? So fast? She had been in labor only 5 hours! With no urge to push and such a great grasp on her pain, I found no need to interfere. I set up the birth room and quietly informed my helper that the birth was eminent.
Her husband is a teacher at the local high school and speaks excellent English. When I invited him into the birth room, he looked nervous but excited. He watched the pushing process with horrified rapture and actually held her hand (not common in this culture).

Not long after, I welcomed a beautiful squaking girl to this side of the uterus. She was so large her hips got stuck on the way out! Ha ha! But it was her mom that stole the show. She was so calm, so relaxed and pushed so well. She made giving birth actually look easy!

I could only hope to be so brave.