At exactly midnight last night, just as I was drifting off to sleep, the phone rang. My client, calling to tell me her waters had released. She said she wasn’t having any sensations yet, and nothing was really happening, but she wanted to give me a “heads up” and suggested I drive out and sleep there rather than getting woken up and have to rush over at quarter to ridiculous in the morning, or whenever things got really happening.
Good idea! I’d rather drive the 40 minutes to her house up a winding, dirt road at midnight than in the wee hours, so I extricated myself from my cosy bed and went out in the rain to go… only to get my car bogged in the mud in my own driveway! Oh goddess NO!
So after a fair whack of swearing and spinning wheels, and jacking up the van and digging under the tyres and putting a few boards down… I was out. Just before I got the van out of the mud, I stood up and said to Ariad (thank the goddess she was there to help me!), “why am I even bothering, I bet she’s birthing a little girl at this very moment”.
A minute later my phone rang – my client’s partner telling me they’d birthed a little girl, all healthy! Only 40 minutes after the original phone call, no less! So I wouldn’t have gotten there anyway.
They asked me to come out and check to make sure everything was fine, and help with the placenta (which took three hours in the end!). Isn’t she a beauty! Nutritious and restorative too :)
So no birthing photos, but I do have yummy pics from when we did the belly cast when the mama was 39 weeks.
Yay for women’s bodies and babies, yay for beautiful birthing!
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How cool! How do you do the belly casts?
ReplyDeletebelly cast is very simple. Perhaps I should do a post on that soon :) but basically, you take one willing woman, impregnate, leave in a warm place to rise for about 8-9 months. Then apply soaked strips of plaster to pre-greased belly. allow to set about 15 minutes, and voila!
ReplyDeleteLMAO! I can't impregnate one, but my sister is due June 2, and I would love to do this to her -- She said YES! :-) I'm going to try to do it, and then have her belly cast at her baby shower for everyone to sign. Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWell, yes, you can take short-cuts and use a ready-made pregnant woman. Sheesh! It's so hard to get young people to appreciate doing things by hand from scratch, the old fashioned way.
ReplyDeleteoh and PS: you probably want to get several rolls of the plaster - you always end up using more than you think you will, and best to do it a few layers thick so it's strong.
ReplyDeletehaha... Well, yeah. I'm not really that 'young', per say, and I would try it your way, but I don't have the woman impregnator capabilities. (Unless you've learned a new trick???) Soo.... I'll go for the ready-baked woman lolz. :-D
ReplyDeleteexcuses, excuses! like my grandmother always said, "if at first you don't succeed, try and try again!"
ReplyDeleteadmittedly, I've had very low success rates, but not for any lack of trying ;)
heheh :-) okay then, just keep trying, I guess :-P
ReplyDeleteThis made me cry with happiness. I guess I am still grieving the fact that my own birth recently was so horrid that seeing women do it the right way brings me to tears. So happy she was supported and trusted. Your work is so important.
ReplyDeletehugs to you boatbaby
ReplyDelete