My streak is over! (and a birth story)

Actually, two streaks have ended for me recently. The first streak, unfortunately, was our healthy streak. James and I had the stomach flu last week (and I'm not talking your garden variety stomach flu; I'm talking the someone-please-kill-me-now stomach flu). We were greatful that our kids did not get it, although this week we're dealing with 104 degree fevers, earaches, hacking coughs, tummy aches and lots and lots of snot. It was nice while it lasted.

The second streak is one that I've been waiting to end and it has! My string of long difficult births! I went to the best birth on Thursday. She is a wonderful sweet Russian woman, "M". It's a true miracle she hired a doula, because her husband happened to be very ill that day with a high fever and really bad flu so he stayed home! I was the only one there for her at the hospital. Her last experience was really awful. She had a few interventions and an epidural that left her bedridden for days with a horrible spinal headache. Not wanting to experience that again, she was looking forward to an unmedicated birth. M's water broke at 8am and she called me minutes later to ask me about it (she wasn't sure). An hour later, her contractions had picked up intensity. I arrived at her place a little after 11 and she wanted to go in. We arrived and she was 3-4 cm. The first nurse we were assigned to was HORRID! I'm trying to tell myself that perhaps she was just having a bad day, but she was just awful! She was short (in temperment, not just stature), and tried to scare my client into making different decisions than she had planned on. She came in and told her she "had" to have a heplock because in an emergency her veins might collapse and they wouldn't be able to help her. M kept holding her ground saying she hadn't wanted an IV and the nurse kept telling her it wasn't (and I know it's not, but no one wants a catheter stuck in their arm when they're trying to get comfortable!). M finally gave in and when the nurse left the room and quietly reminded her that she didn't "have" to have a heplock unless that was something she wanted. She assured me that she did NOT want one and decided to tell the nurse so when she came back in. The nurse came wheeling the IV tray in the room and M politely told her that she did not want one, that she had already discussed this with her Dr. and her Dr. had said that was perfectly fine with him. Nurse Nazi replied, "Well, your Dr.s not here today!" But M held her ground.

M was doing so well, but the nurse kept making her lay on the bed to get monitored. You don't have to be on the bed, those things work standing up, but it can take some creativity, and obviously creativity was not something that nurse was willing to try. She flat out refused when M asked over and over to stand up. M was too nice to smack her. The nurse checked her again at 2pm and she was still 3-4 cm. Then I had to leave to make a quick phone call. I found out afterwards then when I left, M had asked the nurse to hold her hand through a contraction (remember, no one else was with her) and the nurse had replied, "Just breathe." and walked away! That right there left me so angry with her.

But fortunately, her shift was over after we had been there for 3 hours and the world's BEST nurse came in! She was so positive and supportive. When it was time to monitor, she saw that M was comfortable in the tub and just told her to relax and that she would bring the monitors to her in the tub. M never even had to ask. She had to rig the monitors up quite a bit to get them to read in that position, but she just quietly worked with them so that M could relax and do her thing. When M started feeling pushy, the nurse let her stay there while she checked her, even though that meant the nurse had to contort herself over the edge of the tub and use her left hand to do it! She was awesome!

It was about 5:30 and M was 6cm. Her contractions were quite strong and M moaned and held my hand and moved her body with each contraction. She prayed continually for strength. At 6:30 I asked her if she felt like pushing and she replied, "oh, I already am." LOL. Since that particular hospital does not allow waterbirths, it was time to get out of the tub. It took two of us quite a bit of tugging and pulling to get her out. A final check showed that she was complete and baby was very low. She started pushing and baby just came on out! She took it really slow at crowning and didn't have any tears. The nurses and Dr.'s were all so impressed and went on and on about how they hardly get any natural births there. One Dr. even made the comment that she wanted to look into what it would take to do waterbirths (because it seemed so ridiculous to have to make M move in the first place when she was so comfortable.

The best part of the birth by far, was the fact that M was so happy with her experience. I was a little concerned becasue she was so vocal and seemed to struggle at times. It's always hard to tell if that is just their style of coping or if they are actually struggling. It must have just been her coping style (which I can appreciate, since I'm a pretty loud birther myself) because she absolutely loved her experience. Even 5 minutes after the birth she could rave about how perfect and wonderful it was. That right there is what makes it all perfect and wonderful.
The nurse was so impressed she announced how great the birth was and that it was completely unmedicated to every single person who walked in the door. lol. She openly admitted that she would never do natural birth herself, but that just made me love her all the more because you would have never known that by the love and support she showed M. In my opinion, that is what truly makes a good care provider....someone who can give a person everything they need to feel supported and to achieve their goal regardless of what their own personal beliefs are.

M's baby had a head full of dark curly hair and the chunkiest cheeks I've seen on a newborn in quite a while. 7lbs 13oz baby girl!

I can't wait to go back and see her in a few days. She was such a special woman and so strong. It was a joy to be at her birth. And to be perfectly selfish, it was so wonderful to be at a birth where I did not have to deal with the emotions of a changing birth plan. Most of all, it was so fulfilling to see one more woman proclaim, "WOW! I did it!" and to realize for once how truly miraculous and strong they truly are.