Me. Ten babies. I do.
This is something that happened a few years ago. I told some of the midwives about this the other day and we had a good laugh about it:) Y. was a young first time mom. She was born in Yemen, but raised here and married young to a man that her family chose for her. I met her in triage and was surprised to see how dilated she was. She had a covey of women of all ages fluttering about her taking care of her. The men weren’t there and they all seemed just fine with that. Y. was wearing her very modest dress which covered every inch of skin as well as a hair and face covering. All you saw at first was stunning blue eyes against the black fabric. We gave her a gown and asked her to change. When she disrobed I was stunned. She was GORGEOUS. Not just pretty but, beautiful. She had this long, jet black, wavy hair that cascaded down her back and a face that was a lovely. She smiled in between contractions, loved the attention of her family and told me that she was so excited. Now in my hospital, we have a “strict” visitation rule of 2 visitors only, no switching. For me, I don’t mind if 10 people are in the rooms as long as they all have a role. It isn’t a show. No one has the “right” to be there. The role of support people is to give support, not running commentary from the corner or sports updates. Y. probably had about 6 women with her. All in modest clothes, all wonderfully supportive. They would switch off massaging, hugging, singing and praying on their small carpet as she moaned and swayed with each contraction. Beautiful. The nurse and I loved how supportive they were and let them continue. The women present were her mom, sisters, aunt and someone who had to be her great if not great great grandmother. She was ancient looking. Every part of her face was creased with wrinkles and she walked over in a hunch. She was the most active of supporters and Y. clearly loved her. After not very long, Y. started squatting on the bed spontaneously and pushing. I never even had to check her again. So gently she delivered another female into our room. Joy, hugs, laughter…and waiting….and waiting for the placenta. Usually it will come out pretty quickly, but you do have 45 minutes to wait if no bleeding is occurring. After about 15 minutes, the eldest of the ladies attempts to hip check me out of the way. “Me. Ten babies. I do.” I thanked her and said that I would do it. Five minutes later. Bump, bump. “Me. Ten babies. I do” I just smiled and attempted to ignore her. Five minutes later. An audible sigh from my self appointed assistant and she walked over to the patient, took that gorgeous, long hair of hers and shoved it down her throat! Y. gagged and retched a little and plop! Out comes an intact placenta on to the bed without a drop of blood. My wise, wise assistant looked at me, gave me a wink and said, “See. Me. Ten babies. I do.”
I had such great responses to the birth story I posted yesterday. Here’s another one that I wrote :-)
