It's never TOO late!

So many people think that you once you have started care with a healthcare provider you have to finish your care with the same provider. I am not one of those people. Sure, I have taken women after 36 weeks and I have had my share of delivering a baby and then getting the woman's name, but that was at a high volume birth center. As of late, the birth center has been picking up in business and our number of births are climbing, so it hasn't been surprising that I have had many calls from women wanting to switch to our care at like 33, 29, even 37 weeks.

Last week we received a call from one woman who asked a bunch of questions and was given our information from a local childbirth educator. She had been in a class with another client of ours and the two of them shared a doula. I wasn't shocked that she called wondering if she should switch care cause her Nurse Midwife was wanting to induce because she was late. She had fibbed a lil bit on her Last Menstrual Period date so that the hopistal staff wouldn't be hostile if she was going to be late. We told her we could deliver her if she wanted to switch, but we didn't hear back from her. That is....until Friday evening at 5 pm.

After a long week, Melody and I decided to go pamper ourselves with a pedicure. As we were finishing up our pedicure, my phone rang. It was this woman and I handed the phone over to Melody. It wasn't 5 minutes before Melody was asking if we could go meet this woman and her husband later that night. Both of us had plans until late that night, but she was willing to meet with us even if it was midnight. She was scheduled for an induction at 9am the next morning. I was slightly hesitant but agreed. I mean she is healthy and all is normal, right? Well, as I was on my way to carry out my plans for the evening (around 7pm) Melody called to say that this woman was contracting every 4 minutes and that we should meet her now. Melody agreed to meet with her right away and let me know that I should turn around and head back. This was her first baby, so surely it would take all night. She had only begun to have regular contractions an hour before. I called her husband and said, "Hello, this is Venessa, I am the midwife." He answered with "Hi Venessa, the midwife." He handed the phone to the doula and she informed me that the couple had decided they wanted a home birth. My first thought, "Oh wow, here we go" and oh by the way her contractions were then every 2 - 4 minutes.

Melody called me 20 minutes later only to tell me that the woman was 5 cms and definitely huffing and puffing. So there went my plans out the window...off I went to the birth! I quickly rushed or sped while calling the students and walking them through directions on what to do and what to get from the birth center! Funny thing is that all my students had company from out of town and plans for the evening. They are learning fast that a midwife's plans are never definite :)

I walked in to meet her husband and finally introduced myself to the woman with "Hi, I am Venessa, your midwife." She said, "Hi I am ****** and this Alayna," as I was touching her belly. I showed up at 8:15 pm to find this woman acting "transitiony" and by 9pm she was 8-9 cm. I did find out however, that she had taken castor oil that morning as she was determined not to be induced! My whole birth team was there and we were ready (except for the fact that the only information we had on them was their first names). I did know she was group B negative and all her labs had been normal...phew!

She decided to get in and out of the water, but went right back in...she only had an anterior lip by 10 pm and gave slow pushes in the water. She struggled to push in the water so we moved her to the birth stool. She loved the stool and felt like she could control her pushing more. Her pushing was much more effective and all had been picture perfect. As soon as the baby was about to crown, her heart rate went down to 90 and did not recover...I held my breath and prayed. I knew it would be alright just because she was gonna be out in less than 20 minutes. With the next push, she made it to crown, but her heart was still slow. As her head came out, she restituted the wrong way, I tried to turn her head the right direction but she wasn't able to go that way. I merely waited until I could see the anterior shoulder. But before her shoulder I saw two hands crossed in front of her neck and I had already unwrapped the cord that was around her neck.

By this point, too much time passed so as soon as she was born, she flopped into daddy's hands, but I could not find her heart rate. Melody rushed to give her a breath and another one and another one. We put her on the floor to start resuscitation. She opened her eyes once. Mom and dad were talking to her the entire time and finally, a very slow 90 seconds later, she cried! Baby recovered and I was able to breathe again. She had passed a lot of meconium on the way out (which was a sign of her stress), but she pinked up and was in mama's arms in no time. Even through all those challenging moments, the birth was beautiful and the new parents were thrilled! We then began some of the paperwork and it wasn't until 36 hours later that I realized she was 43 weeks and 1 day on the day she delivered! YAY! She is now the latest one I have delivered and to top it off, it was a sweet and exciting birth! After it was all over, the birth team and I headed over to Denny's to regroup and debrief and what was written on the back of that menu? "It's never too late!" Yeah, you can say that again! :)