A cute picture

 We get to spend time with women who are totally in there power and then see the most beautiful sites in the world. A small little newborn. Then we acctualy get to remember that we were there to welcome them when they made there first cry, their first look into their moms eyes. We get to celebrate the beginning of life and the miraculous experience that this is. Yes we get tired, yes our family has to sacrafice for us to do this work, yes we never know what kind of chocolate this birth will be like, yet we trust, we love and we give our love no mater what.

 Women must trust themselves and their baby. They must trust their midwives. They learn to trust nature.  They learn to mother and trust their mothering.

Thank you women and babies for allowing us each to learn, grow, understand and trust life as it begins. You a students are on this journey to KNOW that birth is trust worth and expect it to be. You are on this journey to learn how to know when to support, when to help and when to stay out of the way. You must learn to recognize when to stay home and when not to. Learning to trust brings everyone into their truth at a birth. When you prepare them ahead of time that this is their work, they can accept their work, own it and walk with it. It is only them that can do it, not you.

Sometimes the baby is trying to tell you something

So it is a head postiton and a taught bag. The cervix sometimes can only do so much without the help of the baby. When the cervix is 6-7 cm for a week then you get lots of contractions and the water bag is taught and the dilation is going no where...... maybe it's time to break the bag. Swooosh and out the baby comes in 20 mins. A wise midwife once said " the waters gotta break sometime". The most important thing is to know the right time to do that so that the baby comes and all is well. As students you will learn when the right time is and yes you will have times when you are not sure. Remember this, if the cervix is dialated to 6-7 and the mom is contracting so that the bag gets a bubble of taught and there is no progress, consider it. If you transport because of a "lack of progress" the first thing they are going to do when you get there is break the bag and have the baby. Baby must be head down and at a -1 to 0 station too. Then swoosh the baby is out. Be smart, review what you have at hand and then be a midwife and get the baby born.
Oh an on a more humorous note... I really like the hard black tubs we use. Then are sturdy and rarely spring a leak. Yes they have had a leak of two but the blow up tubs are just asking to have a hole. The tub we used got three holes before we ever even birthed in it. Off to the store at midnight to find patch kits which ended up being a metal water proof tape because we couldn't find any. Now mind you the company will send another tub but that is not something a baby is willing to be patient for.

Wisdom of nature or patience is a key

I pass along the wisdom of nature that like turtles who grow in their shells and must hatch themselves, so must most human babies. As I am awaiting the birth of yet another " grandbaby or niece" I am reminded by the wisdom of her knowing that time is important to allow all good to come about at her birth. I believe that we also have an agenda to bring to the table and life must dictate some of it.

To induce or not to induce is a question. Unless a woman is overdue or her blood pressure is questionable  by midwifery standards,  why then would be induce a woman. Is 280 days the perfect day for every human baby to be born? No! The clock is an illusion and the timing is dependant on many factors. First that so as a woman lives so shall she give birth. Who is she and how does she do things in life. Second, what is the moon up to? It does play a part as does some cosmic door that opens and lets people in and out. Third, what are the emotional drives that move a woman to her path? Every woman is different. The path to ten centimeters is different for every woman and every baby. No two are alike. The only thing we know is that they do.