Innocent Birth
Snow covered the rolling hills of Amish country in Pennsylvania. It was a glorious December afternoon, the sun beating down upon us. Although the days were warm, the nights were a biting cold. I had slowly driven into town to buy firewood so we could all stay cozy during the nights before we were tucked under our quilts. It was during this outing that I received a labor call. Lily was in labor. Lily was beautiful, she was so young, innocent and always smiling. Pregnancy glowed upon her. She arrived at the clinic in the afternoon. I prepared the birth room for them, set out towels, birth balls, put lavender essential oil into the diffuser. We waited until we hear the driver arrive with Lily and her husband David. They emerged from the back seat. David ushered her into the clinic and we ran down the narrow wooden stairs to open the door.
She was about 5cm dilated when she arrived, her vitals were excellent and the baby was handling labor well. She and her husband wanted privacy to labor alone so I settled downstairs to crochet and watch Friends. Towards evening David came downstairs into the kitchen to make supper for Lily and himself. He had a complete servant’s heart and it showed in every action and the manner in which he cared for her. I would walk upstairs occasionally to check in on her and see how things were going and listen to the baby’s heartbeat. At some point I was sitting on the bathroom floor while she was laboring and David had gone down to fill up her water cup; she looked at me, eyes drooping, but still smiling and she said “I have such a good husband” and she said it from the depths of her heart.
Toward nightfall Lily wanted to soak in the tub in hopes of easing the pains of her contractions. The tub was large, more like a jacuzzi so she had plenty of room to move around. Around 1030 that evening David walked into the kitchen and asked me to come upstairs to sit with her. She wanted someone who ‘knew what was going on’. Her contractions had strengthened considerably and I sat next to her on the while tile floor as she labored in the tub swaying with each contraction and holding onto David’s hand, gazing into his eyes. It was dark outside and the silence of a snowy night settling around the low lit warm bathroom. I kept encouraging her that with each contraction she was bring this baby closer to her arms. “Oh I need to be thinking of that" was her response. Lily continued to smile and glow during her entire labor, despite the tired look in her eyes and the sweat droplets on her brow.
She was so in tune to her body, laboring like a queen. At 1050 she started to grunt, the first sounds I had heard from her. As a midwife, we know these grunting sounds are also ‘pushy’ sounds. I called the assistant midwife to come because her labor was transitioning into second stage. And just like that her body took over and she was pushing that little baby out. Lily exclaimed “ouch!” and I looked down to see the bag of waters had broken in the tub and her baby’s head was out. The other midwife was charting and while looking at the baby said aloud “oh the baby has pink cheeks” and without skipping a beat Lily’s humor was still present as she laughed and said “I have pink cheeks too!” With the next push out came her little one; screaming and pink. It was 1130pm. Lily was on her side in the tub and as I helped to bring this sweet new soul out of the waters I had to reach a bit too far across the tub and my feet flew up and my entire front went dunking into the tub. I passed that sweet little baby boy to Lily and she glowed with motherhood. She leaned back in the tub and snuggled up with her baby. We emptied the tub and put in some fresh warm water. She looked at her new son son and said “he’s got a perfect nose, mouth, ears…”
After spending time in the tub, we helped her up and into a cozy bed. She immediately started breastfeeding him, and he latched so well. After his feeding, David was holding baby A on the side of the bed and Lily was gazing lovingly at her new family. Suddenly they start speaking in hushed frantic tones in their native language of Pennsylvania Dutch and Lily looks at me and exclaimed, “grab the baby David is going to faint!!” I jumped up and whisked baby A out of David’s arms as he laid back slowly on the bed, white as a ghost. Lily had still not delivered the placenta so we helped her back into the bathroom to see if she could use the toilet, many times this helps with placenta delivery. The umbilical cord was hanging out with a hemostat attached and after using the toilet she flushed while still sitting on it and in turn the hemostat went swirling and swirling around which caused her to start laughing so hard that the placenta plopped into the toilet. It was quite a different delivery method than I am used to, but most effective. As we wiped down her legs and helped her into some panties she laughed and said, ‘I’m glad David didn’t see that he would have had a fit!”
We tucked the new family into bed and let them get some sleep. This birth was full of innocence: Lily had no fears or worry in her mind during the labor and birth. Birth was normal to her. Joy was a part of her being. She never stopped glowing with beauty. And humor was always nearby.