By Birth Without Fear
I recently attended the long anticipated birth of a dear friend of mine. This birth was a planned HBAC. Her first birth was a c section at 35 weeks due to problems with one of the babies. Those babes are now robust, fun 7 year old girlies. I was with her during that pregnancy from the day..yes the day those babies were conceived on a camping trip.
I was delighted to be asked to be midwife this time around. We’ve been through some ups and downs in our friendship over the last three years but when it came down to it, she knew she could trust me as her midwife and I knew any differences we had in the past had nothing to do with her desire for a healthy pregnancy and vaginal birth.
Of course when you live some place where homebirth and midwives are not the norm, you get looks and comments but this mama was having none of it and put everyone who offered a differing opinion in their place with a firm “It’s MY choice so shut up”. Love.
Labor commenced at 40 weeks 2 days. I was excited and went to check on her when her water broke in the early morning. She labored beautifully all day as I went to check on another midwife and her client and came back again.
She labored all through the day and into the late evening with no cervical change at all. As I examined her I could feel what I thought was a forehead and not an occiput (back of the head) and I had estimated a 9 ½-10lb baby. We tried everything I know of to get little big guy to turn but he did not.
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