There is an fairly famous midwife saying that, “Midwives have skilled hands, and they known how to sit on them.”
The saying is really very true. As midwives we pride ourselves in “not messing”, we are experts in normal and natural. We trust your innate ability to give birth and know that the vast majority of births are perfectly normal. This does not mean we are uneducated on risks or untrained in managing complications. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Our ability to not mess is founded in our understanding of when it is necessary for us to step in.
Sometimes we don’t “sit on our hands”.
We can’t always do that.
We know you really wanted that water birth, we wanted you to have it! But right now your baby needs to be born quickly and we do need you get out.
We know you didn’t want an IV, but you’ve become very dehydrated and baby is feeling it. The IV will make your baby a lot happier.
We know you wanted to catch your own baby, again we LOVE it when you catch your own baby! However, in this circumstance your baby is in trouble. We need to step in and help you get your baby out.
Sometimes do deviate from our plans and desires. Sometimes we don’t get the exact birth we imagined for months. This could be a drastic change like needing to go the hospital or it could be something we are able to manage out of hospital. Here’s what’s different when things change with us.
We still do our very best to make all your desires happen.
We had to help baby be born quickly… Baby still goes right to your chest and is skin to skin. We don’t cut the cord or take baby to a warmer. We acknowledge the best place for baby to recover from trauma is with you. You are their heat source.
Even if baby needs some help breathing 99% of the time this is still done right on your chest.
If things were hard in the delivery and a lot out of the usual went on as soon as it is safe to do so we give you your space. We value the first few hours you have with your baby and want them to be as calm and peaceful as possible.
In the photo above this baby just needed a few minutes of CPAP to help get her lungs cleared up of extra fluid from birth. Lights are low, mama is touching and holding her baby, dad was happily snapping pictures and also was up on the bed talking to baby. The cord hasn’t been cut yet ( that’s why baby is so low on her tummy) everything is as calm and peaceful as we can make it even though we do have to be right there keeping an extra close eye on baby.
Not everything is always completely perfect. That’s okay. We know when to let nature do its thing, but if we need to step in we are skilled and trained to do so. This is what midwifery care when things aren’t “normal” looks like.