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Monday, August 30, 2010

Adventures In The Birth Room

It’s been a busy weekend! I’m not even sure where to start! Friday would be as good a place as any so I guess I’ll start there!
I had my first shift on Friday night. 10pm to 6am. It was a long night, but the time went fast. A woman had just been admitted at 9:50 so Maria and I took her chart and began to prepare. I watched as Maria checked the woman. It wasn’t very long before she was ready to push! By 1 she had her baby! It was my first birth and it was amazing!

Not too long after that another woman came in. I got to help a lot more with her. I ran all around the birth room, grabbing towels and gloves and anything the midwives said they needed. Her labor went very fast as well and by early morning I had seen my second birth! Then I went home and slept.
Saturday came and went without very much happening. I slept till 2 in the afternoon and then went to get some dinner at McDonalds. That evening, Christina and Josh invited us over to their house for dessert and games. It was a lot of fun! It probably would have been more fun if I hadn’t been so sleepy!
Sunday came and I still wasn’t able to sleep in! I had to get up for church! My housemate, Heidi, and I were off to try and find the church that we had gotten lost trying to find last week! We found it this time and loved it! It’s a good church and I think that I will go back.
I also had swing shift on Sunday. Swing is from 2pm to 10pm. I forgot that we’re on our own for dinner on weekend so I was very thankful to the interns who brought food over to us! I was shadowing Makayla. We had a woman come in shortly after we got on shift. She was 8cm dilated so it seemed like she would have her baby any time. But she was having trouble relaxing. Makayla had her try many different positions to get the baby to move down, but nothing seemed to be working. It’s a good thing that this woman had a very loving husband and mother who were there for her. Her bana (husband) rubbed her back, supported her, made her milo to drink and just loved on her so much. It was so beautiful to see! The bana was there while I was taking fetal heart tones. The moment he heard that baby’s heartbeat, his eyes went wide with amazement and awe!
Finally, around 7, the mother was ready to push. We had several other births going on and no one to assist! It was just Makayla and I. I looked at her and asked if I should put gloves on and she said yes because it was looking like I was going to have to assist her even though I’m really only supposed to be observing right now! Luckily, one of the interns who has far more experience than I came in at the last minute and was able to assist. The baby was born around 8:30. 
So it’s been one of the most amazing weekends of my life! I haven’t had much sleep, but that’s ok. I’ve gotten to see some of the most wonderful women give birth to beautiful babies and that is absolutely worth the lack of sleep!


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow Ashton How adorable and How amazing! Talk about jump in with both feet! You look very natural there..I pray it gets better and better..Remember though it is the honeymoon stage,as in all new things,it will be a little more like "work" but when its a "call",it will always be with JOY..later!! love you..Renee

Unknown said...

Ashton,
I love the picture above (you look so much like your mom... I hope that's ok to say). I don't know if Moira and I told you, but we used mifwive's for both of our children's births... Emma at a birth center and Micah @ home 6/26/10.

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