Birth Standing

Writting a specific birth story is challenging because of all of the births I have seen in the past three months, they blend together. I was going to write about my last catch but I am not so great at narrative. I thought it better to write some of the more intense moments instead, kinda like looking through a photo album of snapshots of the past 3 months here.

I could even catagorize them according to interesting little details no?

Moms standing and squatting during pushing...

1. A mama came in pushing, we brought helped her to the "peach room", barely had time to put a chux down, before her baby came out hollering. Her huband stood behind her and held her elbows as she squatted with each back to back contraction and pushed. None the less, he had a backache afterward.

2. Sylvia...one of the strongest woman I have ever seen. A 3rd time birthing machine, she followed her instincts so amazingly. She birthed standing until the head began to come, then moved gracefully to the birth stool where to rest of that 9 1/2lb baby came sliding out. We were a little worried as the heart tones slipped below 90bpm as the head was compressed (very normal but it always seems to bring a bit of worry into the room). Baby came out a litte gunky but beautifully pink.

3. The first time I assisted was with a momma standing. The baby's head came sllllllowly out without restitution and then had some sticky shoulders. A slow 2 minutes ticked by before we moved her to the bed into McRoberts, that seemed to work to birth the rest of the body. The baby was great and the parents were estatic. The whole labor and birth we had been speaking in Spanish. As the momma received her little girl, she looked at all of us and said "OH THANK YOU, I am so happy"

A little side note:

I have seen a lot of sticky shoulders, for awhile I was equating it with bed dystocia, or "mammas birthing on their backs" dystocia. I don't know now though...I have seen hands and knees dystocia too. I also used to think that dystocias were caused by directed pushing too, but that theory hasn't panned out either. Most of these babies were under 8 lbs too.

I wonder sometimes if the dystocia is about fear, or disturbing the birth space as well. I imagine that Michel Odent would agree...

At any rate, the sticky shoulders have always easily resolved...so maybe that would not define a true dystocia? I am still working it out in my head and may never draw any scientific conculsions. Birth never seems to follow the paridigm of science, there are too many variables to adequately give theories about labor patterns and complication patterns that apply regularly: ie, dystocias are more likely to occur with babies over soo and such weight. It just doesn't seem to happen that way....

I was talking about birth stories was I not? It is so easy to get off topic...part of my writing is processing all of these experiences and information. To be continued.

Mother Nature

I haven't written in awhile, things continue to flow for us well here with a few stops and starts, minor glitches. It seems like conflict would be more exciting for a blog no? I haven't written much because life here seems to continue to astound me, energize and lift me up. I feel like a broken record. If you don't want to hear me wax philiosphical, read the last paragraph, it contains the birth story.

I really do believe that the power behind your emotions is what drives how your life unfolds. Life unfolds sweetly now, the glitches seem so minor that they are not worth putting much energy into complaining about (housework, homework, car repairs, ocassional grumpy children, ocassional grumpy staff members and students).

So the "feeling sense", the power behind these lovely feelings, continues to be the lense through which I am viewing my time here. Good good things continue to unfold.

I could write an entire blog on the color of the trees here as they prepare for winter. I understand why so many writers wax poetic about fall and how it sets the world ablaze with its stunning shades of yellow and green against an azure and cloudless sky. The upper valley, where our home is located, is like fairy land to me. I have never lived in a place with grand seasonal changes. I could stand still in our back yard for awhile and just watch the yellow leaves of trees drift gently down and make feathery piles on the green grass. Sometimes, after dropping off the kids at school, I drive aroud the neighborhood just to look at Pecan orchards in their seasonal bloom.

Silly, sentimental me. Natures beauty has always been my church. As a child it cradled me, as an adult it feeds my soul.

I almost titled this post "PRAYER" because of the power of it, prayer in nature, prayer in birth...

My last catch brought tears to my eyes because of that power. That was the way this laboring mom coped with the intensity of her labor....she had her rosary beads in her hands, and at the peak of contraction she whispered a prayer to the Virgin Mary and rubbed on the beads. It was stunning to watch her draw on the power of that. Her voice was so soft, her words inaudible and sacred. Her body moved instinctively to that ritual. She moved in a circle around the room, moved her hands to the circle of the beads. Her voice circled through the prayer over and over again.

Ok, I ran out of time...will post the entire story next entry. The point is though that mother nature is amazing, I see it around me and I get to see it in this midwifery journey. Trees, mammas, babies...

Cowboys in our garage

There are 2-not one, but 2 Ford f-150 huge, deluxe, cattle guards and gun racks, fully loaded trucks in our front yard. Are they strange neighbors? Are they looking for things to shoot in the wilds of the Rio Grande? Are they farmhands at the neaby ranches? Are they chasing down a lost horse that may be roaming the open fields down the street?

Nope folks none of the above...they are here, in my house, staring over my dear husband's shoulders in our garage learning to make biodesel. Yep-these cowboy hatted booted mustashed tobacco chewing lovely folks are getting chemistry lessons in our garage.

Those Ford-150's? Yep Diesel trucks that run on recycled, converted veggie oil.

You think Californias are forward thinking folks, and Texans are assbackward? Nope-yer wrong.

I have met more mammas here (outside of the birth clinic) who co-sleep, elimination train, extended breastfeed, home birth in the few short months we have been here than most of my parenting years in San Diego.

Mind you, we are 5 miles from the border of New Mexico. That has something to do with it. Our kids are in Montessori school and that has something to do with it to.

I really thought I would be miserable here. I am not. Kids, husband even the dog is happy here. Arno is in heaven, he is teaching bio diesel to some cowboys. Plus he starts a very lucrative job next week...though sigh, his 1st paycheck doesn't come until January 15th.

Are you all trembling in your California Birkenstocks dear friends in San Diego?

I miss the sand, I miss the ocean, I miss my family, I miss my dear grandmother who just got out of the hospital. I miss my California king sized bed. I miss my long time friends. I miss you all!

Ps-My darling 5 year old made the society pages of the Diario. He was at a Holloween birthday party and in troops newspaper man to take photos of kids. I am a pround mama. Sorry the photo is not turned correctly.

Hands and Knees

Everyday joys of life in the clinic...
1. Watching a mom who waited 4 long years to concieve rub her belly in joy, her eyes welling up with tears. I get choked up myself. She listens for a full minute to her baby's heartrate on the fetoscope, her eyes closed and a smile on her face.

2. "Que nombre le vas a poner?" one of the staff (a native speaker) asks a little girl what name they are going to give her little brother. The little girl's answer? "hermanito" or "little brother", Como? responds the staff asking her to repeat it, the little girl answers "con marcador"
It is a language joke of course ...the word como could be interpreted two ways, you use it when you want someone to repeat something but it also means "how?"-well with a marker of course, that is how we will put his name on him. The expression in Spanish is "what name will you put on the baby" which can be a literal interpretation to a 4 year old.

3. A dad really trying to be macho but sobbing in the corner where the midwives hear him but don't see him. His little boy just entered the world.

4. A mom birthing on hands and knees to a baby that enters the world sunny side up and crying before the shoulders are born (my 3rd catch)

5. The 9 centimeter expression "I can't do this anymmore"

6. The color of the 7 am morning sun on the 1930's building across the street- illuminated amber. For me it signifies another beautiful beginning of the day.

7. A wise 15 year old crying upon the arrival of her baby, kissing her 17 year old husband. No fear, no shame, just pure joy.

8. Babies coming out with nuchal hands, nuchal cords, lower than anticipated heart tones. No forceps, no vacums, no cesareans, they just come out with love and patience and freedom of movement.