Day Four Part 2: Catching My First Baby!!

About 10 minutes after putting up my blog post last night I got called down as a lady was 8cm and I caught my first baby!

As she was pushing but not fully dilated, her cervix was moving down and was swollen – I was able to feel it which felt so weird!! Although she was constantly being told not to push she wasn’t listening which made the process a little more difficult for her.
With the help of another midwife I was able to listen to the baby’s heartbeat using a Doppler but after almost 2 hours of this woman being in the delivery room the midwives decided to break her waters to get the process started.
As they were doing this, another midwife and I were just putting on our gloves ready to catch the baby – but it came so quickly I didn’t have time to put my gloves on properly and they looked so funny!!

The baby came flying out once the water were broken so we quickly had to grab it and put it on the mother’s chest. Although skin to skin is advisable in England, in the Philippines the Department of Health have decreed that the women need it for one hour; at this birthing centre they call it ‘Golden Hour’.
I was able to cut the cord again which is so weird – I think it feels like cutting chicken and it’s weird to know you’re not actually hurting the baby by cutting something so close to it!

After the birth I was shown the placenta in detail which was sooo interesting to see – which side was attached to the uterus and which was to the baby. After the birth we also checked the mother’s vital signs – so blood pressure, temperature, heart rate etc – and also felt for the uterus which felt hard like a rock!

WARNING: placenta photos with blood below

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