Bonjour
beautiful bloggles!
Week
2 is over and I’m more emotional than a dog-owner watching Marley and Me. And
let’s be honest, that film is killer.
I
had 3 more shifts in the birth centre this week and I feel like I’ve come away
stuffed full of knowledge, experience and pride. To top it all off I ended my
last shift by delivering my very first baby!!!! Woohoo! You can read about that
here!
I
had a couple of shifts with my sign off mentor this week and I’ve got to say
she is FANTASTIC. I feel like the woman is a walking talking font of knowledge
and a master of multi tasking. She enters the room like a tranquil tornado and
can deliver a baby, keep the Mum calm, manage the other midwives in the birth
centre and explain to me in detail about everything she’s doing
all-at-the-same-time! Both of my mentors are inspiring me so much and setting a
great example of the kind of midwife that I want to be.
I
had 2 more witnesses in 2 days…one a very quick water birth that was great to
be a part of. I think the Mum was shocked that the baby came so quickly but
that is so common with multiparous (women who have already birthed a baby)
women from what I have seen so far. It’s a lot to do with the cervix not taking
as long to efface and dilate but also I think the woman and her body know what
to expect and so the pushing comes a little easier and familiar if they had a
fairly uncomplicated first labour.
My
last witness was a lovely birth with a Mum of 4 (now 5!) who really appreciated
my support. I had assumed, stupidly, that as she had already done this 4 times
she might not need as much encouragement and may have wanted me to take a step
back leaving it to her husband to be her support, boy was I wrong. Her husband
was very present in the room but more as an observer during her labour, he was
a lovely man but it seemed apparent that he would only come to her if she asked
him too and they both seemed happy with this distance. I stayed by her side,
holding her hand, helping her control her breathing through each contraction and
making sure she was drinking plenty of water as the gas and air (entonox) can
make you feel very spaced out and give you a dry mouth…especially after hours
of panting through contractions. She didn’t want me to leave her so I sat in
almost complete silence by her side for most of the labour. She had only
briefly been introduced to me after handover from a colleague but immediately
she wanted my support.
The
amount of trust these women and their families bestow upon the midwives and
students is just beautifully overwhelming and makes me feel so grateful for
their belief in us. The silence is something that becomes second nature to you
as a student midwife. There’s no awkwardness or need to speak all the time and
it can be very peaceful to have such calm in-between the contractions.
As
I was sat next to her on the floor by the birth centre bed (they’re less of a
bed…more like a sofa with a bean bag on to detract from the medicalised labour
ward rooms) I was able to monitor the fetal heart beat with a handheld monitor every 15
minutes to ensure that it was recovering from the normal decelerations that
occur during the compression from contractions. There was no need to do a
vaginal examination, as there are other none-invasive signs that the labour is
progressing to the transitional phase. With this lady in particular, although
her waters had ruptured earlier, as the baby’s head moved down more of the
fluid began to gush out and there were signs of bulging, if she had the urge to
push we would let her go with her body as we knew she was ready to deliver. Her
husband came over to give her support as she started to push so that I could
help the midwife prepare for the delivery with towels and opening the delivery
pack… becoming more involved in the actual delivery was so exciting!!
Once
baby was born and put onto the mother’s chest it was all very quiet and
peaceful in the room. Usually when babies are born there is an eruption of
emotion and pure elation in the room. Tears and cries of joy fill the silence
but with this lady I felt a very different air of tranquillity so I kept quiet
and busied myself with helping the midwife. I’d later find out that this
silence actually was golden…What I loved most about this birth was that the
lady and her husband were Muslim and after their lovely little girl was born
they had a few religious rites that they needed to perform. The father put
sweet water onto the baby’s gums and recited an ‘adhan’ in his daughter’s right
ear so that it is the first words she hears... this is why it was so quiet
after the birth. An adhan is a call to prayer is used in the mosques daily
"there is no deity but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.”
A
while later after the mother had bathed and dressed (you would have NO idea she
had just birthed her 5th child from looking at her!!) you could
tell that she was just brimming with oxytocin haha! She was in such a happy,
chatty, excited mood and as a student I was able to sit and talk to her whilst
the midwife completed the admin for her discharge. I took the opportunity to
ask her all about the rites of birth in Islam… she was so enthusiastic and
knowledgeable! I find myself in awe of religious people and a little jealous of
their ability to have so much faith and conviction in their beliefs. I soon
realised that I’m going to experience a lot of different religions and really I
should research to try and understand their different traditions so that I can
be respectful and accommodating for the woman and her family when caring for them.
So
there you have it, my last witness and I’m now birthing babies with the help of
my mentors. I wanted to do a separate blog-post about my first hands on birth
so I’ll get that written and posted ASAP! I’m bursting with excitement to tell
you all about it!
No comments:
Post a Comment