When I changed my career trajectory from a hospital-based midwife to a homebirth midwife, there was an adjustment period. During this time women approached me to be their doula for their hospital births. As my homebirth business was just starting up, I agreed, and I met two lovely women and agreed to be their doula.
One client, Moriah, went on to have a beautiful breech birth in hospital. The other client, Julia, was also planning a hospital birth. She had her baby at the start of the corona era when doulas were banned from attending births. So, in the end, I didn’t actually go to Julia’s birth.
Fast forwards two years and my homebirth midwifery practice was booming. I regularly attended 4-6 homebirths per month. For some reason October was a quiet month and with the Chagim falling during that month, I was thankful for the break. So, when Julia and Moriah each called me, to be their doula again with a due date in late October, I agreed. I figured I’d get through the Chagim without any births and then they would both have their babies.
Their due dates were two weeks apart.
Julia’s due date came and went with nary a contraction in sight. She dutifully attended each post-dates check-up, all was well and she kept waiting on baby.
Meanwhile Moriah was nearing her due date and having contractions every night. But every morning they wore off and labor didn’t come.
I was in touch regularly with both clients and I wondered how this would play out.
Julia finished her full 42 weeks of pregnancy and was planning to attend the hospital the next morning for her induction. She was really ready to give birth!! Early that same morning (or we could call it late that night), Moriah called me to say that her contractions had intensified and could I please come to her home like we’d agreed. This is going to be interesting, I thought. I set off at 5am to beat the morning traffic, as there is nothing worse than having a client in labor, whilst you are sitting in the traffic, hoping you’re going to make it on time!
When I arrived, I determined that the contractions were not yet that strong. I had hoped that Moriah would finish having her baby in time for me to be with Julia. Alas, it didn’t look promising. I checked Moriah’s cervix, and to her dismay, it wasn’t open at all! She was pre-pre-labor. Moriah was adamant that she was giving birth that day as she was done with all the warm-up contractions she had been experiencing for a week! We both took a nap in her bedroom till her kids woke up, and then called a reflexologist to help get her labor going.
Meanwhile, Julia had been admitted to the labor ward and started her induction with a balloon catheter.
After my short snooze in Moriah’s home, I went about my day. I had meetings planned and I went to see my other clients. From time to time, I got updates from both women, but neither were in the active phase yet or needed me. I decided that a visit to my mother for lunch would be just the thing, and lucky for me, my brother was visiting too, so we all had a lovely lunch together. Then, anticipating a long night ahead after only a half night’s sleep, I bedded down for a real nap in my mother’s guest room.
Thankfully, I got a couple hours of rest until Julia called me. She had dilated enough that the doctor was going to break her waters and get her labor moving. She’d been hanging around all day and was excited for the next stage. I kissed my mother goodbye and set off for the hospital, arriving at 5:30pm. I hadn’t had an update from Moriah in hours.
Poor Julia was a bit fed up, bored and tired. She was sitting in bed, attached to the monitor, not doing much. To be honest, her uterus wasn’t doing that much either with a meek contraction once every 7 minutes. So, we decided her body needed a little help for this labor to take off. I helped her from the bed and onto the birth ball. We got creative with some movements; I pressed on pressure points and gave her a relaxing back rub to get the oxytocin flowing. By the time an hour was over, we were in a much better labor pattern. The doctor came and broke her waters and gradually contractions increased in strength. However, her cervix did not dilate further since Julia had called me all those hours ago from my cozy bed.
The doctors started a pitocin drip and Julia decided that she needed an epidural. It was late in the evening and I hoped that we would make some progress.
Meanwhile, guess who called me? Yep, you guessed it, Moriah! Her labor had finally kicked in properly and she was planning on attending hospital. Moriah knew that I had a client with an induction, so I encouraged her to come to the same hospital where I was at and I would be able to help her as best I could between helping Julia too. Knowing that both ladies were planning on an epidural made this task possible. Without an epidural, I don’t think it would have worked out. Both ladies had stated a preference that they didn’t want a back-up doula, that if I wasn’t available, they would manage on their own.
Moriah came in and was thankfully in active labor and received her epidural. Julia’s epidural was working well and the Pitocin IV was dripping. I wondered who would give birth first? Moriah with natural labor which was finally progressing or Julia with the induction who had been there all day? I left it up to Hashem, though I prayed that I could be with each woman during her birth.
After some time of me trotting back and forth between the two rooms, the midwives cottoned on and I told them how I was hoping that the timings would work out.
Moriah got to the pushing phase first and I left Julia to be with Moriah. It wasn’t such an easy delivery and Moriah had to work hard for quite some time to push her baby out. I helped her in all the doula ways that I knew. She was elated, but quite exhausted by the end. As we were basking in the afterglow of the birth, the midwife came and told me that Julia was ready to start pushing. I gave my apologies to Moriah and went back to Julia.
It wasn’t Julia’s first delivery either, so we expected the birth to be straightforward. Julia pushed and pushed. We changed position numerous times, did spinning babies exercises, tried every trick known to mankind, and this baby did not descend. The pitocin dose was increased again and again. After nearly two hours of pushing, Julia was desperate, I told her to shout and make noise when she pushed as this seemed to be helping. The doctors threatened a vacuum delivery. Finally, with a lot of effort and pure animalistic instincts, Julia managed to push her baby out into the world. The midwife had to give a helping hand to pull out the tummy and legs. It was a tight squeeze. She gave a newborn squawk.
What a huge relief swept over the room. Julia fell back into her bed, euphoric, but exhausted. Her baby wasn’t huge, but she was Julia’s biggest yet.
Of course, I quickly excused myself to go and say goodbye to Moriah who was about to go up to the main ward. She thanked me for all my help and we hugged. Back to Julia again. It was now 5:30 am. Julia’s placenta had not separated within the mandated half an hour and the doctors decided to take her to surgery to manually remove it. At this point, I excused myself and decided that her husband could take over from there. I had been with Julia for 12 hours, apart from the time I had spent with Moriah. Again, hugs and goodbyes. I got in my car and drove home, saw my kid for 20 minutes and waved him off to school.
Finally, I got into my own bed, after missing the previous one and a half nights of sleep. I was out like a light for an excellent and well-deserved slumber.