The Right People at the Right Time

I had such an unusual birth yesterday.

The mom hired me on Sunday.  As in, the day before yesterday.  She was beyond her due date, not feeling great about her OB group, and wondering if unmedicated birth was possible with her OBs.  She was actually having steady contractions when she interviewed me!  The next morning I joined her and her husband for their birth. 

She was wonderful!  Perfectly uncomplicated labor.  She never complained or asked for pain medication.  She just did the work of labor.  She did ask for endorphins once.  🙂  She and her husband wanted to get to the hospital late to avoid interventions with their OB group.  And she had one OB in particular that she hoped was not on call.  He was…more on that in a minute.  We spent the day at their home.

We arrived in triage at Greenville Memorial and she was already pushing.  The triage nurse checked her, told her to stop or the baby would come in triage, grabbed a resident, and ran to the last bed available in L&D.  Our nurse, Ashley, was one that I’d worked with before.  So we trusted each other.  And the best part–her OB was busy with a birth at another hospital, so we got the resident.  I told this wonderful man, Dr. Palmer, what was important to the mom–immediate skin-to-skin, delayed cord clamping, no routine third stage pitocin, and vertical birth.  He shrugs and says, “That’s fine.”  And he remembered and followed her wishes exactly!  I don’t think her chosen OB would go for most, if any, of those choices.  Yay for Dr. Palmer. 

Ashley brought the squat bar in.  And this incredible woman pushed out a gorgeous baby girl. 

It was as if all the people meant to be at her birth were brought together with such purpose and care. 

Oh, and her OB arrived about 30 minutes after the birth to apologize for missing it…