Reprieve

The bathroom demolition doesn't start until Tuesday now.

That means we don't have a gaping hole and a useless bathroom in the house over the long weekend! Phew!

Had a long and tiring day at work today, but ultimately rewarding. A very nice baby, after a big, big effort. A catch for my student midwife even though it technically was a lift out vacuum. The consultant was really nice and just got the head barely out then brought the student midwife in and together we helped her to draw out her first baby, including delivering the placenta. She was stoked.

A job for everyone. Most days intimacy is the only way to go. Today many hands made light work. I don't often feel that way about birth in a hospital setting, but today I feel I made some good collaborative calls, following thorough assessments, and it was a good result. I held my ground on a few things and my position was respected, and invited collaboration when I needed a second opinion. No-one was over the top about anything, and it was really harmonious and positive, if a little more crowded than we originally planned, before things took their own path.

Contrast this with the birth I had a week ago in the birth centre where it was really intimate and private. The first time I have ever deliberately been solo with a woman at birth (there was another midwife outside the door ready to come in if assistance was called for, I only had to squeak). It was a big responsibility, for that first minute when I was waiting for the baby to establish some convincing breaths while I gently rubbed her and 'called her in'. All was well, as I knew it would be, but it was a small test, and A Big Moment for me.

And now a few days off for me...baby number fifty is just around the corner.

I love being a midwife.