Sarah’s life gets even more hectic as two women birth on the same day.
Monday. Pre-dawn, I received a calm call from Leah, a Charedi balabusta, that she was in labour. Leah lived an hour away and in the rush hour traffic, it would take longer to get there. It was a week before her due date with her 5th birth and it was going to be her first homebirth. Having had easy hospital births previously, she opted for a private homebirth this time. Leah said she would call me back soon to update me if things were progressing. Meanwhile, I showered and got ready. Being so far away, I was nervous to not leave things too late, A little while later, I spoke with Leah again and said she was getting her kids off to school and things were still calm and I should wait at home. I got back into bed, fully dressed, desperately wishing for another half an hour of restorative sleep for my tired bones. Alas, I could not fall back asleep, so I got up and helped see my own kids off to school. Shortly thereafter, Leah’s husband called and said the contractions were getting stronger and I should head out. I knew I had a long drive ahead of me, and that Leah would be anxious until I arrived, so I hurried into my car and zipped off to Leah’s home. I arrived together with Leah’s doula. Upon examination, we were surprised to note that Leah was still in early labour! We had a few hours of work ahead of us to help Leah to progress to delivery and we did many types of exercises to help move things along. Slowly, slowly, the pace built up.
It was a long day, but eventually Leah progressed enough to allow her to enter the pool for the last stretch of labour. After 7 hours of intense labouring at home, Leah’s little boy was born straight into her own hands. As a first homebirth and first water birth and she couldn’t have more overjoyed!! Her husband who had lovingly set up the birthing pool in their living room, was delightedly happy that he had managed to acquire it at the last minute and that he had gotten it inflated and filled in time. After ensuring that Leah and her baby were doing well, I packed up my stuff and headed home that evening, ready to spend a little time with my own family before the next day’s scheduled natural induction for Shira.
Tuesday: On my way to Shira the next morning, I went on a leisurely detour to visit Penny and see how she was doing with her baby. Thankfully, all was well and baby was providing the requisite number of wet and dirty diapers! Penny was joyful to have stayed home and not have been subjected to a lack of rest due to the hospital’s institutional demands. I re-weighed baby and checked them both over, also enquiring of Penny how she was feeling physically and emotionally. Then I gently carried out the standard heel prick test for detecting metabolic deficiencies in the newborn, being mindful to properly warm the baby’s foot first, in order to ease the speed and efficiency of the test. The post-natal visit always takes over an hour if you do it carefully and attentively.
I left Penny’s home and was nearing Shira’s place when I received a call from Tamara, saying that her waters had broken! I was not anticipating that, as Tamara wasn’t due for over another week. Well, babies come when they are ready and not always near their due date.
Thankfully, Tamara’s confirmed that her waters were clear and that she was having only the mildest of contractions. Baby was moving well, so there were no immediate concerns. I prayed that her labour wouldn’t pick up until after Shira had delivered. I was in a real quandry, should I worry Tamara by telling her that I was attending another labouring woman? or just wait and see how things worked out? I decided to wait and see and put my trust in Hashem. In the meanwhile, I arranged cover from another midwife to attend Tamara’s birth if the need arose.
I arrived at Shira’s at around noon. She was after 2 doses of castor oil earlier that morning and was having mild contractions. She wasn’t in active labour yet, but it was encouraging that some contractions had started. We worked through some exercises to help move things along, I swept her membranes and said I was stepping outside for a little while to make some calls. I needed to check in again with Tamara and see how Leah was feeling after her birth yesterday. After I returned, I rechecked her cervix and things were picking up. I called the second midwife, who had to battle afternoon traffic to get to us. We supported Shira in her labour for about another hour, listening in to baby, giving encouragement and applying back pressure, until a precious baby girl was born whilst her mother was in a standing up position in her bedroom. Shira immediately flopped down on her bed, spent, and was so thankful things had progressed and gone so well. Her baby latched on to nurse and we all basked in the glory of the moment. Shortly afterwards, the placenta was delivered and checked and Shira was cleaned up and resting in her bed. Grandma came to prepare a meal for the recovering mother. Mazal tovs were laughed all round the house and the atmosphere was very jovial.
By the early evening, I spoke to Tamara again. Her labour hadn’t yet really started, so she had gone for some alternative treatments and she would update me when they had an effect. After a baby’s waters break, according to protocol, there is a 12 hour window, within which labour needs to start in order for it to be permissible to birth safely at home. This is due to the potential risk of ascending infection once the sac of waters is open. At home we are not able to properly monitor this risk and are also not permitted to give potentially vital antibiotics. Hence we have an uncomfortable situation of the clock ticking. It’s one of the most frustrating situations for a homebirth midwife in Israel to be in. Everything can appear fine, but we can’t know for sure without hospital level monitoring. If there is an undetected infection brewing in the waters, and I didn’t bring my client into the hospital to receive antibiotics in a timely manner, then I have acted negligently. Not something a responsible midwife will do.
After Shira’s birth, I did not feel like it would be a good idea to go home, seeing as I would most likely need to turn right around again for Tamara’s birth. That would have been emotionally hard for my kids, to see me for only a few minutes. Luckily for me, I had a good friend living nearby who offered to feed me supper and let me rest for a bit. I spent a pleasant hour dining and relaxing with my friend, before Tamara’s husband called to say that things had picked up and I had better come.
I put my skates on, and drove off in the direction of Tamara’s home.
For the first part of the blog, click: https://www.sarahthemidwife.com/the-life-of-a-homebirth-midwife-part-1/
For part three please click: https://www.sarahthemidwife.com/homebirth-midwife-in-the-holy-land-3-a-last-surprise/