| Midwifery Care Associates Simmonds and Simmonds, Chartered Phone: (240) 514-0140 Fax: (240) 514-0148 Email: cnm@midwiferycareassociates.com |
| 11301 Rockville Pike, 3rd Floor North Bethesda, MD 20895 (in the White Flint Mall) ~ 77 Thomas Johnson Drive, Suite H Frederick, MD 21702 |
| "Certified Nurse Midwives offering respectful, competent, gentle health care to women throughout their lives" |
| Homepage Meet the Midwives History of MCA Forms, Links, and Handouts Consulting Physicians Birth Stories Shady Grove Hospital |
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| They say that birth is the most intense physical exertion many women ever undertake. More than physical strength, however, I think mental and emotional fortitude are essential to a natural birth. The contractions will come whether you like it or not- it's how you respond to them that counts. So, when I think about how the midwives at MCA enabled me to deliver my 9 pound, 4 ounce baby boy by a drug-free, vaginal birth after caearean (VBAC), I don't think about the birth day itself. Mind you, our attending midwife was invaluable that day. But more important were the months of answering questions, gentle encouragement and reassurance. Throughout my pregnancy, the midwives all displayed the utmost confidence that I could have the natural birth that I wanted, and their belief in me and in the process of natural childbirth made all the difference-especially when labor began, not like a gradually cresting wave, but like a Mack Truck. A week late and hoping to avoid a chemically-induced labor, we consented to membrane sweeping on the afternoon on November 14, 2007. After the appointment, my husband, Joe, went to work and I went to my in-laws house, where our two-year-old twins were playing. Shortly after I got there, my back started aching. I wasn't having contractions at that point- just a dull backache that seemed to be better only if I walked around. So I walked. Up and down my in-law's porch, back and forth. Around 5pm, the first contraction hit. It was so intense I couldn't move or speak . I had two more in the following 45 minutes ( by which time Joe had arrived and we started heading home). After that, the contractions were steadily five minutes apart and by the time we were home they were about three minutes apart. Joe called the midwife to let her know were we stood. I was kneeling on the floor with my head and arms slumped over the side of our bed, moaning with each contraction. The midwife asked if that was me moaning in the background and when Joe said it was, she said " You'd better get to the hospital!"; I was nervous about going to the hospital so soon. Labor had only started about 90 minutes before. I didnt think I could possibly have made much progress in that time. When we arrived at the hopsital, the midwife checked me and I was already 8cm dilated. Joe and I spent the next two hours working through contractions that seemed to come right on top of one another. The midwife was with us the entire time, together with a wonderful labor and delivery nurse at Shady Grove, but they seemed to just quietly float into view, checking a monitor or adjusting the bed, and then recede into the background. The midwife gently guided us from position to position- the edge of the bed, the birth ball, slow dancing, squatting--helping the contractions do their job. More importantly, the midwife understood our wishes for the birth and we knew she would protect us, in a sense, from unnecessary inverventions. We could focus entirely on the contractions because neither of us needed to deflect unwanted offers of pain medicines or extra exams. Marco Joseph finally emerged at 11:30pm after about 90 minutes of pushing. I have never felt more powerful than I felt after Marco's birth. For weeks after, I had to resist the urge to tell strangers who would stop to admire the new baby about how he came into this world. I credit my great experience to choosing the midwives at MCA as my care providers. It's impossible to overstate the impact of an enviroment where natural childbirth is considered normal, amazing, beautiful--of giving birth surrounded by people who believe in you and are motivated only to help you achieve the birth that you want. |
| Marco Joseph, 11/14/07 |