Maghinay Family

Yesterday was a very long day, but eventually rewarding. Emilou has been my continuity since the very beginning when I became her midwife on the first day she came to prenatals. We had become friends through the many months of pregnancy. Most of her pregnancy was uncomplicated, but then at about 34 weeks her baby turned breech, and didn't seem inclined to move to a cephalic position. We tried our best to convince her - we did external version a few times and Emilou was amazing at doing knee-chest position exercises everyday, but when those things weren't working I knew God was going to have to the convincing, and we prayed. To my absolute delight, at her last prenatal before labor, little Sophia Hope had turned cephalic!

Emilou labored all weekend, and we stayed in touch, but she did most of it at home. She did come to the clinic yesterday at 9am and from there, she labored mostly at the clinic where I was. Her husband was a trooper, he had worked through the night last night, so was very tired, but was a great support for his wife.

Although the labor took a long time, there weren't any complications, and I was glad she was able to labor in a safe environment where the pace was unhurried by medical interventions. Then, at around 12: 30am, Emilou wanted to push, and not long after that, their 3rd girl, Sophia Hope joined us. She has to be one of the most beautiful baby that I have seen in a long time!

Emilou kept bleeding through her postpartum checks, but after some pitocin, it stopped and we were golden once again. I was very glad to have been there for Emilou, she is a Christian as far as I can see from the way she prays and talks about her faith. If I hadn't been her midwife, she would have been transferred from shift to shift, having had at least 3 different care givers, and this way she didn't have to get used to new people each time new people came on shift.