I took Chix as a continuity (meaning I am responsible for all her care during pregnancy and birth and after. I did her initial prenatal, and ended up doing 10 prenatals with her - all of them! (unusual because sometimes scheduling conflicts can arise and another midwife may cover for another, but in Chix' case I did them all). I took her as a continuity because through pregnancy she was 16 years old (turned 17 in January) and a vegan! I didn't know they had vegans in this country, but I guess they do! Both her and her partner are vegans, and I wanted her to have one-on-one care to make sure nutritionally she was caring for herself and her baby well.
She came into the clinic yesterday (6/14) at 8:40pm while I was on shift (I was there from 2-10pm) but was still in early labor, so I sent her home to rest and labor a little more before returning. I tried to stress it would take many more hours, and to try and wait until the next morning to come back (I was on shift again from 6am-2pm the next day), but through a group effort I was finally woken up at 1am saying she was back and more active.
So I got to the clinic some minutes later carrying my pillow and asking God for strength to do what was ahead of me. I checked her in, and sure enough, she had just passed over the early labor phase and was entering into active labor. It was a long night for all three of us, but John (her partner) was a great support to her and as 6am rolled around, she was ready to have her baby.
WARNING: The story continues in a semi-detailed manner below this picture - not for the faint of heart (and/or stomach) :)
When her water broke it looked like thick mud instead of clear water. I immediately called in reinforcements and we did everything we could including me using alot of muscle to get the baby out as fast as we could. Fortunately her baby handled birth well, and she pushed like a pro. We gave Chix oxygen and that helped the process immensely, along with lots of prayer of course.
The baby was born pretty stable, although with low normal apgar scores of 5 and 7 (10is best). We still had a plan to refer him though because of the meconium staining in the water. We got him to breastfeed finally and were packing him up to go to the hospital, but waited a little while longer because Chix needed attention, and although I will spare you the details on that one, suffice to say her uterus wouldn't clamp down and stop bleeding so we transported them both at the same time.
I returned from the hospital at 9:30am and even though I was bordering on exhaustion, I needed to remain at the clinic because I was on shift until 2pm. The good thing was that it wasn't busy at all, so we were all able to rest a little bit.
I left the clinic at 2pm after being there for 21 hours 2pm on 6/14 - 2pm on 6/15 with only a 3 hour break from 10pm to 1am. I slept for a few hours this afternoon and plan to do a little more sleeping after finishing this post :) Both mom and baby are stable at the hospital now, and I will be able to visit them in the morning.
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