This is from Brownstoner, via NewYorkShitty. Found in McCarren Park, Williamsburg, NY. Totally cracks me up!
Last night was a very strange night. It wasn’t that busy, and yet, somehow, neither the other midwife nor myself were able to take a break. The pace was very steady. We kept expecting it to settle down, but it never did. Just as we were thinking “oh, as soon as this woman is discharged, [...]
Here’s a lovely birth story to share, my 99th delivery: We were all expecting a big baby. Her estimated fetal weight from Leopold’s palpation was judged to be approximately 4500 gms. The baby felt huge: fat and happy, and we were all duly nervous, because her first baby was only 7.5 pounds. She wasn’t a [...]
Sometimes birth is not normal. Sometimes there really are complications and problems which need to be dealt with in a hospital setting. Sometimes a medical approach to birth is exactly what’s needed. Sometimes interventions during birth ARE lifesaving. Yesterday was a perfect example of that. I was helping to take care of a woman who [...]
Today I caught my 50th baby! She was born at 4:18 pm to a young woman from Puerto Rico who was absolutely thrilled and excited about her first pregnancy. She was an induction for postdates (per hospital policy, all women are induced if they’re still pregnant at 41 weeks); she’d actually had an incidence of [...]
Rachel commented, in response to my Worry-wart = New Midwife post: “I was interested to see in your description how “medical” the treatment of the L&D patients seems to be, despite having a midwife on hand. Any thoughts on that?” Of course I have thoughts on that! First of all, this is hospital midwifery and [...]
Someone asked me once how I can stand to be around birth all the time, with all its sights and smells and liquids and mess. I told this person that honestly, I very rarely notice it, and it doesn’t bother me, obviously, or else how could I continue to do this day in and day [...]
So, my first week of clinicals ended last week, and I am only just now having an opportunity to sit down and write about it. Let me tell you a bit about my schedule: clinicals take up roughly 42 hours a week—2 labor and delivery shifts and 2 clinic shifts—plus one day a week in [...]
Look what happens when you do. This is a birth that could have gone so differently if the midwife involved had acted out of fear instead of trust.
And of course, something needs to be said about Birth on Labor Day, aka BOLD, a new event slated to occur annually on Labor Day (appropriate, eh?). Created by playwright Karen Brody, and clearly modelled off of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues and the subsequent V-Day that was created to call attention to violence against women, [...]