Circumvallate Placenta

Here is a video of an amazingly unique placenta from a birth I was at this week. While I was inspecting the placenta after the birth I noticed that it was a circumvallate placenta . The baby was fine and had 9/10 apgars.

HBA3C

It's a new year and I'm back in midwifery school. Working full time hasn't allowed for me to be as active in my clinical experience as normal but I wanted to share this awesome birth I was at last night.

My midwife called me around 10:30 Thursday night and asked if I was available to assist her at a birth she was at. In my infinite wisdom I had agreed to work a double so I could be off on Friday to go to a fundraiser for our upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic so I wasn't going to be out of the hospital until 7am. At 7am sharp I got a call from my midwife asking me to go labor sit a mama who was in labor because the mama she was with was pushing.

When I arrived to the house it was clear that the mom was in early labor so I encouraged her to sleep. Around noon the midwife came over and checked her at the mothers request. She was still around 2 cm. We both left so the mom could rest and spend some time with her husband. Around 8 pm I received the call, the mom was 8 cm and "rockin' and rollin'".

Back at the house for the birth, the mom was amazing. She was laboring in the tub in the living room handling it like a champ. Around 9:30 pm she started to feel pushy, and was bearing down with her contractions, listening to her body. At 10:06 pm a beautiful baby girl was born in the water into her mothers arms, 9 lb 1 oz, 20 inches long.

Every birth is beautiful but this birth was especially so because it was her first vaginal birth after three cesarean sections. Does every trial of labor for a VBAC mom end in a vaginal birth? No, but every mom deserves a chance to allow their bodies and their babies to choose their birth route. My hope is for every mom, VBACer or not, to be given the space to have a gentle birth and to have their choices respected. I'm so glad I got to be witness of this awesome birth! ROCK ON VBACers, ROCK ON!

(Im)Patiently Waiting

So I'm back to work full time and that means back to having health insurance. First things first, I made an appointment with a new ARNP for a check up and pap smear. Having worked at a doctors office for 5 years I knew it was best to arrive early to fill out the new patient paperwork. Having all my forms filled out didn't help with the wait. Forty five minutes after my scheduled appointment time, the receptionist called me up to discuss my insurance.  I made the appointment two weeks prior, if they had a problem with my insurance they could have called me so we could have discussed it before I'd been waiting over an hour! I was so mad I left. Definitely not going back to that office.

I do not understand how it is acceptable to have patients wait HOURS for their appointments. In what other industry is excessive waiting ok? Did you wait 45 minutes for your barista to make your coffee or your server to ask for your order? I don't think so.

Like I said above, I worked at a doctors office for five years and we, the office staff, were the gatekeepers to making sure appointments fit into their time slots and that people didn't have to wait. If we had a client with an issue or an appointment that ran over we'd call the next patient and give them the option of seeing another provider or rescheduling. I never remember people having to wait more than 15 minutes and even that was rare. It kept our patient happy and coming back for their appointments. I KNOW that running an office where people are not forced to wait longer than their appointment will last is possible.

Now off to find a practice that respects my time and doesn't make me wait in order to fit in a few more appointments into their providers busy days....

Two Year Sentence

So this past semester I was on a break from midwifery school, a much needed break. Like I've said before, midwifery school is not inherently difficult. The classes are not the problem. Being on call 24/7 and driving more than 300 a miles a week can and does get to a person (or it least it got to me). It was nice to be out of school. I did miss my friends but I was able to go back to work full time and it looks like I'm going to be able to keep working next semester when I go back to school. Unfortunately, I won't be rejoining my class- I'll be in the class that's just one semester behind mine. A small class of five. It should be nice.

So I keep going back and forth between midwifery and nursing. This semester I took chemistry at USF, my last pre-req for nursing school while I pondered my options. I've always wanted to do international work as a midwife but the thought of all my student loan debt makes me question that and think about nursing. I finally saw the MSF documentary "Living in Emergency" and it helped to refocus me.

International work as a field midwife is what I want to do. Period. Yes, I think I'll also practice in Florida but I also want to think globally and work with NGO's like MSF or The Hamlin Fistula Hospital. Two years left and I'll graduate. In March I'm going to the DR with three of my classmates and we're trying to plan a trip for next December to go to Senegal. Hopefully we can pepper our last two years with international volunteerism to help the time go by a little faster... one can only hope.

HBAC, Saturday October 16th

 Me and my amazing midwife preceptor, Jill

SO I didn't get to go to Saturday Morning Market on Saturday but I did get to go to an AWESOME home birth. The mom had had a previous cesarean for "failure to progress" after pushing for over four hours. This time her entire labor was less than five from start to finish! She was standing when she triumphantly delivered a beautiful daughter at home with the loving support of her husband, doula and friend.

After the birth the mom was sitting in the bed holding her precious baby and talking with her friend. Her friend had a HBAC just six months ago and they were discussing how "do-able" home birthing is. "It's totally do-able," says a mother less than an hour after having a totally natural, undisturbed home birth. Those are the moments that keep me going. I'm so lucky to be apart of such powerful rites of passage, it's almost unbelievable sometimes when I stop and think about it. I love it!

If you want someone to have a baby, make plans.

Yay for babies but seriously, can a girl catch a break? I want an empanada from Saturday Morning Market! I miss you Empanada World, one day soon we will meet again!

One more time with feeling!

Thursday I met my friends (and one of my first doula clients!!!), Jessica and Jack, at Labor of Love for their interview with the birth center. She is expecting baby number two and is hoping for a birth center birth for this baby. Her first birth was beautiful and I'm so glad that I'm going to get to be apart of this birth too! This is my first repeat client. I am SOOO excited for her and her family, it's going to be great!