Born before arrival and just being there

Well, I got the call at 5:50 in the morning, our lady was contracting strongly 2 in 10 and by 5:45 when my colleague rang again to say our lady felt like the baby was coming, I had already rung for the taxi to come. The roads were clear and I told my driver that I needed to get there quickly as I was a midwife and had a lady giving birth alone in her home, you would have thought that something like that would have compelled him to drive a bit quickly, but to me it felt as if we hit every light. Regardless of this, I arrived at our lady’s flat at 6:04 am, exactly 34 min from the time I was woken by the first call.

The security door, at the front, is open awaiting my arrival and I struggle into the elevator with my bag of stuff. Five flights up and the front door is open, I rush into the hall and into the cosy darkness and silent space of a home birth, but notice quickly that my work had been done for me. Our lady greeted me from the floor of her front room, baby in arms and all smiles. Her husband and 4 year old daughter welcome me in. Her daughter tells me that mama had the baby on the floor and daddy caught its head. She is bouncy and full of pride, as is her father, but he is super cool and relaxed. Our lady has baby at the breast and she is feeding well. She has not passed her placenta, so at least I had something to do to make my presence necessary.

As a prepare to deliver her placenta, my colleague arrives. Its a lovely scene with us all on the floor in the darkness. One hour later, we tuck the whole family up in bed and my colleague manages to move her car before the morning ticketing begins on the street. Sometimes second babies just shoot out, it is a good thing we talk this through with our families and tell the dads what to do if we don’t arrive in time.

Later that same day I receive a call, one of our ladies is miscarrying. She is 10weeks pregnant and in another town,she is also alone. I tell her to go to the hospital and to ring me later that day of she can. She rings in the night once it is all over. She stays one night in the hospital and I go to see her the following day. We talk for hours, she is very positive under the circumstances and when I leave she is talking about how she is sure that the next time she is pregnant she will have her baby with us.

A weekends work