Continuing my story about planning a home VBAC, when I called the midwife to tell her my water had broken and the fluid was greenish, she very calmly said, "that's OK, about 1/3 of all water is tinged and it's not a problem."
On the other occasions throughout the pregnancy when I needed reassuring (uterine rupture risk? elevated blood pressure? confusion over whether to have a Step B test...)her positive attitude and patient answers propelled me up some hill I could not climb alone. I cannot say how important these little words were. They were little. And they were huge. I cannot say for sure, but I believe that had my greenish waters broken in the hospital, it would have caused more of a stir, which would have made me scared, which would have made me doubt.
On this night, I did not doubt. I gamely timed my contractions on a piece of paper. I broke out into a sweat leaning on my husband and it made me think of all those Hollywood films when the laboring woman has a mop of wet hair. I always thought that was overly dramatic. But I had not worked that hard on a treadmill. Ever.
And when I could not write times anymore, I put down the pen. My husband dialed the phone. The midwife asked to speak with me. She wanted to hear what my voice sounded like. And 10 minutes later the midwife was hauling her bag up the main staircase in our house. She whispered something to my husband, dropped her bag and suddenly a nuclear contraction hit and a sound came from my toes up through my throat. She told me to get in the tub right away.
10 comments:
And through all of this she forgot to call her mother! Or, did she...
Mom, I was just glad it wasn't in the middle of the day and a time when I was at risk of being called pn the phone by YOU. ;)
Poor mom! I have to admit that there were some people we called to let know I was in labor with our recent twin HBAC, and then there were those we called after the second baby was born healthy. It wasn't that we didn't love them as much-- we just knew that they would worry themselves silly. Plus, once labor hit hard, I wasn't thinking about calling ANYONE!
I am so excited we are getting to the end! I can't wait!
I am so excited we are getting to the end! I can't wait!
i was 3 days "past due" this time around and quite tired of my family asking "is he here yet?"
That and with a couple of weeks of prodromal labor behind me i told my mom not to call anybody unless i was already pushing. i didn't want repeated calls during labor asking the same question over and over again.
with my first son i was so excited i called my sister and let her know and then she kept calling every hour. that grew annoying.
In case nobody's noticed, this was a time when Tina and I didn't share much information. And although Tina didn't think so, I called less frequently toward the end of her pregnancy - but when I did call I paid very close attention to the sound of her voice and I did ask probing questions such as "Have you cleaned the refrigerator?". I did not haunt her. I did not beg to know details and I did not insist that she report on every change. But I did speak with her on the day she went into labor - actually I think she was in the grocery store - She sounded great! Where was my intuition?
More, more, please! I'm on the edge of my seat!
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