And so begins 2nd Year

We are no longer shiny and new. We've all had different experiences on placement, good and not so good. We've all already started to think about the kind of midwife we want to be - learning from those we've been working with. We've even already become a little cynical about the changes we thought we could make because we've seen how restrictive working for the NHS can be.

I've been back in Uni for two days and already I feel revitalised and hopeful about my future. During one of courses we will be looking at hypnobirthing and complementary therapies and I am so excited...this is exactly the kind of midwife I want to be. I want to embrace normality and encourage women to believe in their bodies to give them the best possible chance of a normal birth. Did you know that it is a well known phenomenon that women's labours halt or slow down when they enter a hospital? Did you know that it was only once the doctors got involved that babies began to be born in hospitals instead of at home?

Don't get me wrong, I 100% believe that hospitals have their place and women and babies lives have been saved as a result. However I do believe that for the majority of women, home would be a perfectly safe place to give birth. I may well be biased having had personal experience of a home birth and loved it but it is something I am passionate about. Sadly I also believe that we are a long way off turning things around again. Women have different expectations now - they expect pain relief, they expect doctors or midwives to tell them what will happen and when, and so on. It's not that women are wrong but perhaps we are wrong in how we guide women's expectations if that makes sense?

It's not often that I hear people say that they loved their antenatal classes...at least not once they've had the baby. The most common statement I hear is that the classes didn't prepare them in any way? So is this where we are going wrong? Is this where we can make a huge difference to how birth and labour is viewed? I do believe that no-one can be fully prepared for just how much parenthood changes your life but I also believe we could prepare women better for birth, and increase the chances of a normal delivery. I've been on the receiving end of wonderful, inspirational antenatal discussion that led me to my home birth. However I was also fully prepared for if things hadn't gone to plan, and I still had plans in place to maintain control of MY birth. Shouldn't all women be given that opportunity?

I would also like to make the disclaimer that I am not saying that anyone who hasn't had a normal delivery, had unrealistic expectations. There is many factors to consider and I am certainly not in a position to judge whether or not someone was given the opportunity to have a normal delivery. Do you think you were well prepared for the birth of your baby?

11 births and farewell MLU.

I've now finished my time on the MLU and next week I am off to the antenatal clinic where the experience will be extremely different. It's hard to believe that before this placement, I hadn't "caught" my first baby and now I've caught eleven. Eleven very different woman, who coped in very different ways with their labours. Eleven different birthing partners who supported their wives/girlfriends/daughters in a variety of ways. So many of the birth partners say how useless they feel whilst the woman is labouring. They simply don't have any idea of how valuable just being there can be.  And lets not forget the eleven very different babies. Six boys and five girls.

I'm not sure I can put into words just how much I feel I have learnt in such a short space of time. I've worked with different people and they all have their own ways of how to deliver and no doubt over time, I will choose my own preferred way. I like to think at the moment that I will work with whatever is appropriate at that time but ideally, maybe even idealistically, I'd like to be fairly hands off in my approach....allowing women to be in charge of their own bodies and deliveries. I think back to the births of my children and how I feel that my eldest was delivered by the midwife, and how my second was delivered by me....I know which experience I'd rather women have.

However one thing I have learnt is that no matter what I think, the woman has the right to make her own decisions. Whilst for me, being continuously monitored or unable to feel the contractions would be awful, for another woman, this is very important to them and part of being a midwife is taking a holistic approach and recognising what is important and why; ensuring that women have all the information they need to make an informed decision so that after the baby is born, they have felt a part of the decision making process and supported in their choices. What I would do is actually irrelevant in so many ways. So as well as all the clinical skills I am learning, I am also learning how to listen to women and support their choices.

Today I am feeling on top of the world, so pleased with all I have learnt and achieved. I'd love to bottle it - I could make a fortune! Or just have a little sip at those times when I am wondering if it is all still possible. For now I shall bathe in this happy feeling, enjoy a few days off and look forward to another new experience on Monday!

Not one but three!

I made my way to the hospital last night feeling quite excited about the prospect of getting my first catch. I met with mentor and she asked where I was at with my training and I was quick to tell her that I'd made all my witnesses and was itching to get my first delivery. Funnily enough she also wanted to know about what else I'd done. 

We began the shift with a very quiet ward. We made sure the rooms were equipped, checked equipment, tidied up....found things to do. We soon had a couple come in from triage, whom we settled into a room and did the necessary checks that needed to be done, before encouraging the woman to mobilise. She was very comfortable so other than the regular checks on baby's heartbeat and how Mum was coping, we left them to it. When she was next checked, she'd not really progressed so my mentor broke her waters and her contractions soon became more intense so I began to spend longer with her to help her cope.  The next couple of  hours passed fairly quickly and my lady was having some early urges to push, so I spent a long time helping her to breathe through the pains instead. After a short while, it was apparent that she was really struggling not to push, so we encouraged her to use some pain relief, so she opted to use the entonox

At 5.00 my mentor returned from her break early, and told me to go to another room quickly. So I dashed off guessing that it meant a delivery was imminent. Sure enough, I entered the room and could already see the head beginning to appear. I quickly gloved up and put an apron on. Supported by the midwife, I caught my first ever delivery of a baby boy at 5.05.  I checked over the placenta with the midwife, cleaned myself up and then returned to my lady who following a dose a pethidine, was dozing between contractions. After a short while, she was still pushing with the contractions, so I popped out to see if my mentor had returned, as I knew she was due another examination shortly. At which point I was hurried into another delivery room, to quickly glove up and catch my second delivery. The lady was very controlled and very quickly delivered a baby girl at 5.25. Again I checked over the placenta with the midwife, and got cleaned up before returning to my lady. 

On my return to her, I felt that she was now really struggling to breathe through the pains and she just sounded like birth might be imminent. So I popped out to check on the whereabouts of my mentor, who'd got caught on the phone and reported what I'd observed. She returned to the room with me, ready to perform a vaginal examination to check how she was doing. At which point, we discovered there was no need to perform an examination, as we could see the head beginning to appear. Unlike the other two deliveries, this was a first baby so we could expect the second stage to take a bit longer. The lady was very well controlled and pushed really well, so that in actual fact, the baby was delivered within 10 minutes of us being able to see the head. So at 6.15 I had my third delivery, this time another baby boy. As with before, we checked over the placenta but this time I didn't need to rush off anywhere else. 

Of the three, the one that obviously meant the most, was the couple I'd been supporting throughout my shift. I got a much better experience of the progress, signs to watch out for and how to encourage and support women. When I finally sat down, I had a complete head rush and needed 5 minutes just to gather my thoughts a bit. It was a complete adrenaline rush and with three more nights to go...I am feeling slightly tired at the thought if they are to be like last night. However I loved it! I am hoping tonight that I get to have the journey of support through labour, as well as the delivery again. And perhaps slightly less running from room to room....and maybe even a break at some point.