It had to happen…
I was going to post this morning that I love a woman that I am following through her pregnancy because she has been a rock of calm and patience through out her pregnancy.
I was also going to tell you that she was faced with pressure from a midwife this week to be induced because her blood sugars were slightly up (despite having a lovely little person on board, and not having any other signs of suffering any ill effects from gestational diabetes), and I had encouraged her to wait until Thursday when her midwife returned from leave.
Instead, I’m here to lament.
Said lovely woman called me at 6am this morning to say she was in labour, and I got up and dressed and ready for the day because she sounded like she was working hard on the phone. At 8am the hospital called me to say she had arrived, was in labour and had gone up to the delivery ward.
In half an hour I was there. In 25 minutes, baby had entered the world after one push, before mum could get comfortable or even get her knickers off, and while the back up midwife was across the room! I missed the birth and I’m sad for that, mostly because the lovely mother looked lost that both I and her midwife had missed the birth.
In my gut I knew I wouldn’t make it when I got the call at 8am. The actual midwife turned up about 1/2 hour later having gotten stuck in traffic. Both of us gave the slightly shocked mother a bit of grief and encouraged her to look like she’d at least had a baby because she didn’t even have a hair out of place 
.
Today I learnt a lesson though - women truly don’t need us to birth. They love us to be there but they don’t need us. Missing a birth doesn’t change the fact that I’ve watched a lovely person bring another soul into the world and am watching the birth of a new family. I also learnt good things from the midwife about being there in person for the important stuff, not just the birth.
It also reminds me that I need to trust my gut about my women and if I think they’re going to be fast, then I need to go to them and not be hogtied by the system.
