my first birth

I was lucky enough to witness a birth in the first week of my stay here in Eastern Kentucky. I felt strange and intrusive as I entered the birthing room. It seemed invasive and nosy to butt-in on such a magical and personal experience between a woman and her body and her baby. But the mother in the room was warm and receptive to observers. Her temperament was calm and controlled; it was her third birth, and her husband was providing attentive and focused support.

At this point the mother was in the early, but full on, stages of labor, experiencing frequent contractions of some force. The mother was enduring her labor with a heavy epidural, hardly feeling her contractions, but made aware of them by the monitors that surrounded her. Her spirit was high, and I was impressed by her relaxation with the process. It was clear that she was a practiced mother, and that giving birth was a cultivated skill of hers.

As the contractions progressed, the midwife occasionally felt for the expansion of the cervix and for the crown of the infant. After some time, she grew curious; she was feeling topography that did not feel familiar to a normal infant head: a dimple or two hypothesized to be either an ear, a fist or an anus. The midwife had her nurses feel for confirmation. Upon reaching a consensus that there was a possibility that the baby had breached, the doctor was called.

The mother's OB/GYN came to the room and did his own investigation of the situation. He agreed that the contours he was feeling weren't appropriate for a normal birth arrangement, but deemed the situation to be something far more different and far more rare than a breach. The baby was to be born face present, meaning the face of the child was facing up, as opposed to down as in a normal birth. It is hard for a woman to give birth to a baby in this position, as the shape and arrangement of the head and its upraised chin and subsequently the rest of the body do not compliment the shape of the uterus and pelvis as appropriately as a normal birth. The doctor decided that the mother would be able to have a normal vaginal birth, given her success in contracting and pushing during the other stages of her labor.

Faster than I had expected, the mother gave birth, with a serious strength and endurance, to a healthy girl. As I watched the new parents handle thier daughter, I had a moment to digest what had just happened and what I had just felt. Bearing witness to the successful growth of a family was more powerful than I ever imagined it could be. My prior experiences with birth had all come from media or literature, and so to see it all in real life and to be exposed to a tangible love and relief was a moment I won't easily forget.

I have always known birth to be a magical moment; I have never had any doubt of that. Nor have I had any doubt of the incredible capabilities of the human body and the human spirit. However, as I watched this mother give birth in this uncommon, unpredictable and even more challenging position, I was reminded of the strength, resilience and flexibility of our bodies. The situation made me think about how all advances in science and technology aside, a woman's body is designed for this function, and with a little trust and patience, it's biological tendencies will achieve variety of tremendous physical feats.

Similarly, watching the midwife react to the face present birth with pure fascination and joy made me really understand the surprise and bonanza of each individual birth. A face present only happens 1 in every 600 births, and this midwife was beyond amazed that she had witnessed one. A camera was brought out to capture the moment that the head began to emerge from the vagina, face first, and various print outs of the photo were handed around the room and the entire maternity ward. I watched the midwife scurry around the room talking about the rarity and 'coolness' of such a birth, and I realized what an ideal profession midwifery really is. To be moved and taught and surprised by each birth, each day on the job, is something that is fantastically wonderful and enviable.

-frances