Homebirth 40 mins from town……

I waited for the phone call all morning, afternoon and evening. This was a seventh baby for this mama living on the outskirts of town. I knew she was in early labor and we always think those multip mamas are going to go quickly…they often don’t!  The girls all had plans for the day – ballet class, rehearsal for hours for the one, and a b-b-q with friends for the other. Falko and I were home alone….. oh luxury! It was wintry – surprisingly cold outside for the time of year and I didn’t work outside, didn’t plant or dig.  We made a fire. We read. We ate.

After a big dinner of salmon, boiled potatoes and asparagus I headed to bed early. I knew it would happen sometime…..

The call came at 1:30 am – I had gotten some sleep, but my bed was seriously cozy. Warm. It’s hard to leave a sleeping, cuddly husband behind. Really. I sleepily got ready.

Drove the long road to this little town.  Passed no cars. Saw about 10 deer on the side of the road this frosty night. It was dark, it was flurrying. But still there were some stars. Oh New Mexico!

It was an old single-wide trailer. Lots of cars parked out front. A pick-up truck jacked up HIGH off the ground. Tires as big as my small Subaru.

The wooden stairs leading up to the door were wobbly. I opened the door and was greeted by many smiling faces. A teenage daughter warming herself by the pellet stove. Smiling. A crocheting student a huge flat screen playing Friends.

The woman was in the back, slowly laboring. Quickly laboring, actually. I began to crochet. (I was second midwife this time….the midwife that comes in to assist and be present to stabilize. Come at the end and leave when everything is surely perfect.)

I began to crochet. The mama’s girlfriends were with her, the husband gave me a tour of his home…offered me a turkey sandwich. Offered me orange juice. So kind to be thinking of us.

Soon after she had to push. And two pushes later her baby boy in her big bathtub. With her friends, her daughter, her husband and the little birth team from the Birth Center.  She felt a bit shocked – and we were shocked at her grace, her beauty.

I went back out of the room to give this very modest woman her space and some privacy. I crocheted, drank some orange juice on the cozy couch. There was a scary series on the flat screen that I avoided at all costs. Hugs all around. Birth stories by her friends and then off to return to my cozy bed.

Still had the warm and sleeping husband, I crawled in, got spooned and went to sleep. A lovely homebirth. A lovely waterbirth.

Remember please! Details are changed to protect identities.  These birth stories are, also, not recent. They have happened within the last 12 years.