Adelante-2 shifts later

A photo of Ali'i beach(in the town I grew up in) on a calm day
I was a beach baby and learned to negotiate the tides and waves of the ocean well. I learned to swim in Waikiki in those calm waters and as I grew was drawn into the wilder shores of the North Shore (Rocky point, Waimea, Haleiwa Reef/Ali'i Beach). There is a thrill to just being in that water, not surfing it, but riding the waves in the shallows before they break. The secret to those waves is letting your body flow with their energy. You don't struggle to keep your feet on the sandy bottom, don't jump over them, turn your back or panic, you just give your body a little push as they come near and you will be carried over and gently down. It is a nice flow, an ocean cradle rocking you up and over, a weightless experience of surrender.
That is exactly what I have had to do for the last week, surrender to the mystery of birth and all of its wave like action and especially to the MLL birth energy. I was 1st up on Friday and there was a woman in good active labor who was transported for high fetal heart tones...so ended up at the hospital with the family helping to negotiate that experience.

After I came back from there (only 1 person allowed in the room with her at Thomason) Another beautiful mother walked in with premature rupture of membranes. I supported her and her husband through the night, but alas she wasn't going to birth on my shift. I stayed anyway for her birth and got to assist. It was one of the most gorgeous births, no vaginal exams, spontaneous urge to push, standing and rocking through each contraction with tears running down her face. Sigh... such beauty in that intensity.

Next shift I was still 1st up and the only one to not have caught a baby out of the class. A woman had come in at 8 am with light contractions, already exhausted from 2 days of labor and at 4cm. She had lots of family support so I just did 30 minute rounds of heart tones for the day, as the day wore on you could see her exaustion more and more though it seemed to me things were progressing well. She was beginning to get crazy stabbing pains in her back and I could see that baby was posterior (there was a lot of kicking and punching toward the front of her belly). She was checked and at 5 cm after 6 hours of labor. I got busy trying different positions, lunges, side lying, hands and knees, standing, dancing, rocking, robozo. At 8pm she was checked again and her cervix had not changed. Oy poor mama, because of Mll protocols, we had to transport. The family wanted to go by car so she signed a waiver and followed me. I stayed with that family for a few hours and helped them understand the ins and outs of hospital. She birthed that morning by cesarean. The baby was indeed strait OP. I think more than anything she was exahusted.

I was still on shift though after I returned at 11pm, and still up to catch so I went to sleep only to be awoken 45 minutes later....