I have just finished the first week of my rotation in family practice. What a whirlwind of emotions and experiences, not just in medicine either, this week has been very focused on life and what lies ahead. It has been an opportunity to concentrate on what my dreams truly are and reaffirm the love and peaceful understanding shared between Lynn and I. This week I felt like someone took hold of my hand and led me in the right direction. Maybe fate placed me in this tiny town, far from all other city activity just so I could focus on my thoughts and be a part of this rural medicine experience. It is a very spiritual feeling to be standing in the place you have unknowingly been searching for. I think I have found my calling. I need to catch babies, to care for women during the most powerful experience of their lives. It would be a miraculous gift to be a part of this sacred experience women go through, and to be a guiding reassuring presence there- to help women appreciate that they can do this, their bodies are made to do this, to recognize their own strength and power. What a life! Helping others give life… To take their hands and become their confidant and friend, to help them during the 40 weeks of transformation and preparation, to prepare them the best that way possible for the life altering experience that awaits. What more could I ask for? After being part of labor and delivery I do not think I could ever go back to being a medical PA…. now I have found what I was born to do.
Perhaps I can share a little bit of what it is like to be part of a birth from my midwifery experiences. Imagine the most beautiful energy you have experienced, the most loving accepting energy and now fill the room with it. You are kneeling next to a woman on a birthing stool in active labor one hand on her shoulder, the other feeling for the babys head and cervix remaining. The smell of soothing herbs steeping in a corner pot fills this softly lit room. The only sound is her breathing and the singing of her labor pains. Her body moves in its own unique rhythm, a slow dance only shared by her and her baby, a dance that will bring the baby down in its own special way. The beauty of seeing a woman’s strength and confidence in her body’s ability to bring this child into the world is one of the most powerful things I have ever seen. During the times when this confidence wavers you are able to guide her through some contractions letting her in on what you are witnessing and how she truly is bringing this baby down. You have a unique relationship with this mom and the father too, as you have been there every step of the way from week one to week forty you have been by their side to answer questions and prepare them for this very moment.
Then to see the crowning of the baby’s head and the look of imminence on the mothers face, followed by one shoulder and then the next. Finally the whole warm slippery body of that sweet baby lies in your hands. A startled cry leaves its lungs as they fill with this new worlds oxygen. A look of pure joy washes across the mom and dad’s faces as they hold their brand new baby, all the pain is completely replaced by pure happiness and relief. It is truly the most incredible thing I have ever witnessed.
All this time spent agonizing over which path to take, which career to choose… in the end, midwifery chose me. I plan to embrace it with open arms.
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