Birth

Wednesday night I attended my first birth as a doula in a really really long time. It's been a year at least. It was beautiful! I'm still smiling about how well Mom did. Baby was 10 days "overdue" and Mom had already tried many things to get labor going. The last resort (and the one that really worked) was Castor oil. (I now know a nifty recipe to camouflage the taste and texture of it.) Her labor actually started earlier in the day after the midwife swept the membranes for the second time. (First time being 9 days earlier.) It picked up some while she was taking the "Castor Cocktail" at noon and 2pm and continued to strengthen a bit with time. She took a walk around 7pm or so: a good long walk with a purpose! I had visited her earlier in the day and told her to call me when things change. (I had church choir practice that evening and a baseball game that night.) I got a call from her mother at about 10 til 9pm that Mom's water broke and she was having strong contractions. Only God knows how I made it out of the ballpark, across town, and to their apartment in 10 minutes. She took every contraction as it came, she breathed, moaned, and walked about for each one. It wasn't until transition that she needed any coaching whatsoever. I have also learned, again, that you should always trust a laboring mama when she says she needs to push and that the baby is coming out-chances are, it's true!