There's a Fine Line....

It's hard to know when your reaction goes from a true reaction, to an over reaction.  As a doula, it's not my place, or my specialty, to make that call.  However, at the birth I attended tonight, I couldn't help but feel that there was much over reacting going on!  

My latest couple is a military family that recently landed in Boise.  This was their 3rd pregnancy, and the first time she went into labor on her own.  I received a text at 9:25pm saying that she might be in labor, to a text at 9:42 saying "meet us at the hospital"!  I knew she would progress quickly, so I wasn't surprised at all that she was 8 cm when she arrived.  

When the nurse first listened to the heart rate, it was in the 80s and 90s, which is not optimal.  But it is fairly common during the pushing phase of labor.  And by 10:40 mom was complete and ready to push.  The urge to push wasn't there, baby was facing the wrong way in the pelvis, and he wasn't really moving when mom did push.  Because of the low heart rate, the on call doctor suggested a spinal and forcep delivery!  Excuse me?  How did we go from a perfectly progressing birth to an extremely high risk situation?  I could see that the over reaction of this physician caused extreme stress for my clients.  Dad became light headed, and mom appeared panicky.  

It's a tough call, and certainly no one wants to make the wrong call when it comes to getting a baby here safely.  But with so many other things to try in between 'nothing' and 'tons of interventions', doesn't it make sense to change positions, and see if that helps?  Anyways, chosen doctor arrived, and after several minutes we were able to get mom into a new position.  And even though mom didn't like it, the baby did.  He started to descend through the pelivs, and his heart rate improved.  Chosen doctor suggested we all take a deep breath and assess.  Thank goodness she arrived when she did, because anesthesia was about to give a spinal without consent...  

Annoyance aside, everything turned out beautifully.  Was it hard?  Yes.  But was it too hard?  No.  With birth, we need to have a little more faith.  (Or alot more if you are the on call dr....)  It is really hard for a mom to have faith in her ability to birth when the medical staff over reacts.  Because despite how hard it was, this little guy slipped into the world at 23:23 (11:23 pm for you non military timers) with apgars of 8 and 9.  He sure proved them wrong!

Edmund's first kiss.  :)

Showing his sisters (who both weighed under 7 pounds at birth) who's boss, 

weighing in at almost 8 lbs and one ounce.  

This couple was a great team.  It was a bit of a crazy night... But with 3 kids, who are all very close in age, crazy nights will pretty much be the norm for these parents!