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Flora's Birth
Flora was probably the twelfth birth I attended outside the hospital.. I lost all my earlier
records in a fire. She came to me in 1977 or 1978. Flora was about thirty-eight and pregnant with her first child. She
was a very nervous, high strung woman and I did have some concerns about how the labor and birth would be because of this.
She ate an excellent diet and was in great health. I knew she would do better with labor at home in familiar surroundings
and I agreed to attend her birth.
I came in the middle of the night when labor began. A few
hours went by. Flora decided she wanted to give birth in front of the fireplace so her husband built a fire and we
made up a bed on the floor. She was in the bedroom.
Suddenly Flora yelled, "Come quickly,
something's coming out and it's not alive!"
I rushed into the bedroom to see the
glistening bag of waters bulging out of her vagina. I reassured her this was normal and popped the membranes with a hemostat.
Clear liquid with flecks of vernix gushed out. The baby's heartrate was great and we helped her up to walk to the living
room bed by the fire.
As we neared the bed, she had a contraction and spontaneously started
to crouch down. I quickly squatted and looked; sure enough there was the head. Within a few minutes a big baby boy was born.
This birth, as many others, taught me how difficult it is to make predicitions about birth. Some
women you expect to have a hard time don't and sometimes one you thought would be straightforward becomes complicated.
You have to be trusting and alert, have medical knowledge and a loving heart to truly practice the art of midwifery.
excerpt from, Amazing Birth Stories, 2006
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