Meira Ablanque

Last April I was Meira's midwife - but almost didn't catch her baby (who is now 1 year old - see pic on the left) because I was in class and then came down and was doing a few baby checks (she was supposedly only 4cm) when i was called in quickly because "the baby was coming!" We only had time to introduce ourselves after the birth, but still managed to enjoy our time together for the 6 weeks following the birth when she came in for postpartum visits.

When I found out she was pregnant again, she was already 34 weeks along, and due right around the time I was leaving but I really wanted to try and be her midwife again, so I put my name on her chart (thus establishing continuity of care). However, she was on a different prenatal day and it turned out to be very complicated to change her to my team due to miscommunications...

I almost didn't persevere - almost said it was ok if she wasn't my patient, but in the end she was moved to my team, and i still was able to do 2 prenatals with her before she delivered. And they were good ones. Then, of course it was so much better for me to be with her during birth because we had the relationship established instead of a random midwife being assigned to her.

The birth was wonderful! She progressed through labor quite quickly, and breathed through the last hour allowing her to open completely (which is insanely difficult I am told!) and the birth happened slowly. We all knew her baby was big but since this was her fourth, we weren't worried - her last baby (the one I delivered) was 8.02lbs and this boy was 8.10lbs! (very big by Filipino standards!)

There was shoulder dystocia, but only for a minute and with help from my assistant/supervisor (Ate Susan) there were no complications sustained to the baby.

Look carefully at the picture to the side - Meira is not only nursing her own baby (on the bottom) but I brought in the baby of another mother (delivered a few hours previous) to breastfeed because his mother was at the hospital having been transported for something - she was such a trooper - I held the top baby up and she was the hero of the day!