I have just been with a woman having twins. She had a beautiful birth of two babies with minimal intervention.
This woman had a homebirth with her previous pregnancy and share cared between a community based midwife and an obstetrician to birth in the local public hospital. She was a powerful woman who was able to clearly articulate what she wanted and refused routine intervention. Her membranes broke about 9pm and we went and checked the babies at home and this wonderful woman decided, with our support, to go back to bed and sleep until contractions started. To our disappointment daylight dawned and we had not been called back. So an early morning listen to the babies showed they were still fine. Only then the woman called her obs who told her that she had to come into hospital for monitoring of the babies. She told him that the babies were being monitored by her midwives and she would come in around midday if nothing was still happening. 10.30 still nothing so she took some homeopathic, about half and hour later labour began. We went into hospital and she was fully into the birthing process. About 1200 the obs came and she allowed a VE to find she was fully dilated. The obs said.. 'get her pushing' the midwife said 'when ever you feel an urge to push then you follow it" About 2 hours later .. with a very twitchy obs absent as he had to leave to ''deliver'' another baby the first of the twins arrived .. then the obs came back and she allowed a VE to check position and he ruptured membranes. 20 minutes later the second baby arrived birthed into the midwives hands as the obs stood back and watched.. then another 20 the placenta completed the birth born without synt. In the end, I feel that the power is with a strong woman. This woman would not be swayed by bulling or misinformation. She looked for factual information and made informed decisions. We were able to support her. We trusted each other. It was a wonderful experience. In peace and joy Sally Westbury -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe.
