updates, oh the updates.

I have four or so updates posts in the works covering Christmas, New Year's Eve/Day, my birthday, etc. but they'll all have to wait because every moment I spend not doing homework/studying I am thinking about doing homework/studying.

I just popped by to say I reached an exciting milestone in my midwifery career today....I attended my first birth as a primary provider! A powerful mama delivered her big, beautiful baby boy into my waiting hands. It was absolutely down the coolest thing that's ever happened to me (which I feel better describes it than saying it's the coolest thing I've ever done...she did all the work!).

After baby came we discovered a true knot in the umbilical cord! This occurs more commonly with a long cord or with identical twins whose cords can become entangled, seen in ~1% of pregnancies. True knots are dangerous to babies if they become too tight and cut off the oxygen supply to the baby. Luckily in this case the knot did not appear to be tight and mama enjoyed hearing about how her baby was probably summersaulting like an acrobat inside of her. My preceptor said she does not see true knots very often and I'm choosing to view it as a beautiful omen. :)

It looked similar to this example of a true knot (from this source):

This very special baby also got a onesie given to us by our midwifery faculty for our first catch. We were so in love with this idea when they were given to us and it was such a joy giving it away (the mom thought it was so cool). [It says: "A Georgetown midwife helped me out!" with our mascot, Jack the Bulldog.]

All in all, today was a great day and I believe - as one of my midwife preceptors told me earlier today - that this feeling is what keeps midwives coming back to work every day (even with the long, demanding hours and sleepless nights). It's like magic. And how many people get to say they see real live magic every day?

This lucky girl says goodnight. I've got 24 hours of call (hopefully full of many babies!) coming up at 7AM tomorrow morning.

XO,
Ash