I observed a birth last week. It was amazing! The mother had put a fair amount of thought into the sort of birth experience she wanted, and luckily everything went more or less as planned with no complications. She had a few close family members there as well as a doula, a nurse, and a midwife (and me, but I was in the corner). She also had some new-agey music hooked up to the baby’s heart monitor so that the baby’s heartbeat became part of the music, which sounds goofy but was actually pretty neat (and it gave me a little more information when I couldn’t see the screens).

The birth itself went pretty smoothly; obviously it wasn’t painless but the pushing part of labor was pretty short. I was surprised at how much emotion I felt when the baby was born - it really seemed miraculous. Right away, the midwife did whatever suctioning thing they do to its nose and mouth, then placed the baby on the mother’s chest. That changed the whole mood of the room - the mother and baby were so wrapped up in each other and so peaceful, it was amazing. There was still quite a bit of action in the rest of the room (all the medical sorts of things that have to be done after the baby emerges, and the grandmother taking pictures and all that) but the mom and baby seemed completely separate from all that.

The next day I went to visit them and thank the mother for allowing me to be there. There were a few more family members around, and everyone was so happy and fascinated by the baby. It was neat to get to see something really happy in the hospital.

Posted by Amanda in Medicine |