Mom called me at 1:00 am, with contractions every 10 minutes or so, I expected this mom to labor pretty quickly from her past history. Her last baby she went from 4 cm to baby in 40 minutes. From her last baby to this one she moved and now lives about 1:20 minutes from me, so I decided to head out on the road, and pick up my partner who was about 30 minutes away.
I arrive at moms house at 3:00 am. Mom was still having contractions, and they were about 7 minutes apart. She is handling them perfectly, with lots of support from her husband. They quickly moved to every 5 minutes, but we hardly even knew when she was contracting. In fact, the only way we knew is she would cuddle and smooch a bit with hubby. She wanted a water birth, so we were filling the tub, and getting it ready for her, the water was a bit hot, so she didn’t get in right a way. My two assistants went into the other room to get some shut-eye while things were slow, and I stayed in the front room with mom to keep an eye out and to check baby’s heart rate. At 4:00 am. two of mom’s friends came. They were there to support their friend through her labor, and take photos. Contractions closed in at 2 minutes apart now, but still only because mom and dad were smooching did I know this. Her friends were taking photos and mom even posed several times.
She was absolutely beautiful, with a fabulous attitude; in fact, “fabulous” was the word for this labor. Every time I asked her how she was doing, she said with great passion, “fabulous”! She had waited 9 months for this, and was truly enjoying every minute of it. I know that seems strange to those who have labored before, but I think for some it is just easier than for others, and attitude and lack of fear plays a large part as well.
Time passed quickly, and at 5:00 am it was time to get another heart beat from baby, I was monitoring baby’s heart rate every 15 minutes. I noticed this last contraction was a little more intense, and I mentioned that to mom, she agreed, and said she thought she might like to get into the birthing tub now. She squatted down into the water, and I think, but not sure if she actually had one more contraction, it all happened so quickly, but she said, “my baby’s head is here”. I jumped up, called for my assistant who was still in the other room resting, and realized the tub water was a little warmer than I like it to be, so my assistants bucketed water out while I ran cold water through the hose near where baby was coming out, to cool the water as fast as we could. Meanwhile, mom is very gently pushing her baby out, not really pushing, baby is just coming out slow and sure. I offer some perineum support and with no tear, this amazingly strong mom and dad welcomed their 4th son into the world at 5:05 AM.
This was probably one of the most intimate births I have ever attended. Even though there was my team of three and two of her friends, this mom and dad were in their own intimate world. Labor and birth was pleasurable, even ecstatic.
