Childbirth- the Diary of a Midwife

The phone seemed to blast out its ringing sounds through the cold night air to awake both means Sam. He groaned and mumbled something about having work in the morning. I looked at the caller ID, Elle Winters. She wasn't due for a few weeks, it was probably a false alarm. I answered groggily to find a very stressed yet excited Elle.

"Lilly! Thank god. I think it's really happening this time. I've had contractions for the last three hours and I think that bloody show crap just started happening," her voice sliced through my early morning dizziness. I looked at the clock- 3:12am. "Ok Elle are you sure?" I asked, not wanting to drive twenty minutes to her house at this hour. "Well, it feels different to that fake labor that happened on Tuesday," she sounded convinced, "Lilly please come though. I'm by myself and I'm scared."

"What? Why? Where's Jenna?" This shocked me as her sister was always with her after her patents kicked her out. "Jen's gone to visit Ben's parents with him so they can tell them about the engagement and all. Lilly please come over. I promise it's real," Elle pleaded.

"Ok hon, be there in a bit," I hung up.

"Another birth?" Sam asked. I sat down on our bed and nodded. "Which one?"

"Elle. The seventeen year old living with her sister and brother-in-law to be. She thinks she's in labor and she's alone," I retold. Sam sat up and kissed me gently. "Go save her superwoman," he said. With that I pulled on my jumper and found some jeans before leaving the house.

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I arrived at Elle's at 3:45 and found that she was well and truly in labor. She didn't cope well with the pain but refused any pain relief. She was contracting every 11 minutes and with every one she was already needing to focus on breathing. I couldn't see this birth going quietly. At 5-is I decided to check her cervix and found that she was only two centimetres dilated. It was the. That she decided to call her sister and tell her the news. As she was talking to Jen she had a more intense contraction. She moaned and held the phone out to me. On the other end of the line I found a very distressed Jenna. "Jen calm down," I laughed, "she's alright. She's probably just going into the active stage, that usually happens after about 5 hours." Jenna laughed nervously and said that she had to go before she woke up the whole house.

I was definitely right in saying that Elle was entering active labor. Her contractions became more regular and more intense and she got a whole lot more vocal. We had decided together, with Jenna a few weeks back that Elle would have the baby at the house. This was because her mother worked at the hospital closest to their house and after being violently disowned, Elle did not want to run into her. "Lilly," Elle said wearily after one of her bigger contractions, "can I get in the bath?" So we walked through the silent house into the bathroom and started filling the bath.

By the time Elle was in the bath and I had checked her cervix, it was 8am and she was just over 6cms dilated. The father of the baby was Elle's boyfriend Finn who had told her that he would be there for the birth, but didn't think he could stand seeing her in pain during her labor. I suggested that we call him when things start to 'get interesting' so we gave him a call on speaker.

"Hi Finn, it's Elle," she said sounding tired. "Shit. Oh my god Ellie is is happening? Oh my god. Should I come? I'd Lilly there? How far into it are you?" We laughed as we could hear him scuttling around for his keys. "Yes I'm here Finn. You're lucky, she's been at it since about midnight and she's 6 centimetres dilated so you've got a bit of time, but I'd come now if I were you." Just after I finished talking Elle started moaning as a contraction hit her. This made Finn even more flustered and he said a quick goodbye and hung up.

Finn arrived at about 9 and everything started progressing a lot faster. Her waters broke at about 9:30 and she started feeling the full pressure. Elle was fully dilated by midday and getting urges to push. I had learnt through my 3 years as a midwife that if you tell a young girl not to push, it only makes her panic so I looked her in the eye and said my well rehearsed lines, "Elle I think you're ready. On the next contraction, I'm going to need you to push hard down towards your vagina. I'm bot going to lie- it will hurt. If it helps you can squeeze Finn's hand or just do whatever feels right, okay?" I saw a look if fear pass over her face before she nodded and looked at Turned to look at Finn who was sitting beside the bath.

"I feel one coming," she said.

"Ok Elle. And 3, 2, 1, push," I said calmly.

It was a string emotion that always filled me, seeing such young girls push for the first time. Elle closed her eyes and let out a half moan, half scream. She held it for about fifteen seconds before opening her eyes and looking at me. "Ok Elle good," she stopped pushing and started gasping for air, "it's alright, you're doing well." I let Finn take over the encouragement at I decided to check where this baby was. I inserted two fingers into her cervix and felt around for a head. I pushed my fingers right in as she got her next contraction. She pushed down in much a similar manner to last time and as she pushed I felt the baby's head touch the tips of my fingers. "Elle, we're getting this baby out by 1," I promised.

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"Ellie, put your fingers down?" I guided her fingers to just inside the opening of her cervix and watched her face light up as she felt her baby for the first time. Finn looked relieved and excited as I said this and I let Elle show him herself. "Elle I can see it!" He exclaimed, "it's got my brown hair!" This seemed to give her the drive she needed after almost an hour of pushing. She groaned at the contraction, but automatically pulled her legs back and pushed. I watched the baby's head slip slowly towards the world. "Keep at it Ellie, we could get him out after this," I encouraged. She kept on it for another twenty seconds before letting go. I watched the baby slide back to almost the place it was before the contraction as I expected it would. I could see she was getting tired. "Elle, it's getting to the point where it's so close," I said, "can you give me a few little pushes without the contraction?" She nodded, "I think so." She started panting and pushing and slowly her baby moved forward and when the contraction came, the baby got into the position for crowning.

"Elle, this is it. Just a few more pushes and you'll be a mummy," I promised, "now this part is going to hurt the most, but I'm going to need you to listen very carefully or you might hurt yourself or your baby." She agreed and as the next contraction came in, she screamed blue murder and managed to get the forehead out. I let her and Finn feel their child before Elle told me she needed to keep pushing. She pushed and before the next contraction came, the head was out. I checked for the chord around the baby's neck and when it wasn't there, I gave Elle the okay to push her baby out. So on the next contraction she pushed and moaned while I pulled the baby's shoulders down, manoeuvring it out. I then put the child onto her bare chest as both Finn and her cried together. "That's our baby Elle. It's out baby Ellie," Finn whispered to her as he stroked his child. I invited Finn to cut the umbilical chord while Elle hugged their baby. Moments after he cut the chord Elle let out a cry, "It's a little boy! Finn it's..." She got out before getting lost in her tears of joy.

Harrison Christopher Wilson-Green was born 19-06-13 at 1:01pm to Ellen Green and Finn Wilson.