Happy Father's Day and labor

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Father's Day!

I was on call recently and I think I was being punished for having taken a vacation! I had a section in the afternoon, finished my office hours. All was well. Then a patient of mine came in thinking she was in labor. She was 4cms which was a change from the day before. But she didn't change anymore after walking. But she was contracting every 2-3 minutes and a little uncomfortable with them. So we discussed breaking her water versus sending her home with morphine for therapuetic rest. She opted for breaking her water. And wow! She delivered less than two hours later! And she did a beautiful job of it. Dad caught the baby and all were thrilled.

So I went home...

Only to be called back for a primip that was 7cms half an hour later. She was going natural, had a doula and family for support, who were all doing a great job. It was a little weird at first, as I walked in the room when I first got there and no one even looked at me. Anyway, her labor was not going as smoothly as one would hope. This was late evening that she arrived. By the morning when I handed off to the next midwife (I was exhausted and had 30 minutes of dozing so had to go home) she was completely dilated. This was after a lot of different positioning, in the tub on hands and knees, and finally breaking her water. Then she didn't deliver until noon! I felt so bad for the momma...I know she was exhausted before I even left. She did get some Stadol a couple times, which helped her to rest a bit. But she did it without pitocin!

This was one of those situations where I was trying really hard to trust labor and birth but just felt like if I could have intervened, she may have had that baby a lot sooner. But I really want to do everything I can to respect what the woman wants for her labor and birth. It can be difficult as you become torn sometimes.

I went home and slept for 4 hours then got up and went grocery shopping with my mother. I felt like a zombie! I probably had drool coming out of my mouth as I stumbled around the store.