The life of a doula

11:45 Tuesday evening. Go to bed.
12:30 am Wednesday morning. Get a call to meet client at the hospital. She's been having regular contractions for a few hours.
1:20 am arrive at hospital. Find dad in the lobby, mom has been in lobby bathroom for 10 minutes. Go in bathroom. Find mom doing just fine except for the results of the castor oil she took to try and start labor. Eventually get mom moved to a labor room.
1:55 am mom is checked - 1 1/2 cm.
2:30 3 cm Mom still spending much time in the bathroom dealing with the intestinal distress of castor oil. YUCK. I am not a fan of castor oil.
3:30 4 cm
Contractions space out and go away as castor oil wears off. by 5 am she is still 4 cm and has had no contractions in just over half an hour. Mom is given the choice to go home or start pitocin. Mom chooses to go home.
5:30 we leave the hospital
6 am Arrive home and crawl in bed.
6:15 Darrin gets up for the day.
10 am Darrin has to leave for an appointment. I get up, eat breakfast, hang out with the kids for a bit.
11 am Go back to bed for a little more sleep.
1:30 pm Up for the day, shower, dress, try to accomplish something through the tiredness and lack-of-sleep headache.
11:45 pm go to bed.
12:30 am Thursday morning get call that same client is once again having contractions. Ask if it is castor oil again. Nope. This time they are more intense and coming more regularly. They ask me to meet them at the hospital again.
1:15 arrive at hospital. Clients are not there yet. Wait in lobby.
1:25 Get a call on my cell phone - they've decided to labor at home. Can I come there?
2 am arrive at their home. Mom is in good active labor. Water has broken, midwife advised to stay at home for a while longer.
5 am We decide it is time to go in. Takes 45 minutes to get cars loaded up, figure out who is riding in which car (we had mom, dad, mom's sister, friend, me and another doula. Quite the entourage) I end up leaving my car at their house and riding with the laboring mom.
5:30 arrive at hospital and get mom settled in.
6 am midwife arrives. Checks mom - 9 cm!
6:30 let the negotiations begin! This mom is having twins. Hospital and "doc in the box" (on-call doctor for the hospital) want mom to have an epidural and birth in the operating room "just in case". Mom, dad, midwife and midwife's backup doctor are all fine with birthing unmedicated in a standard labor room. (Why, oh why, do hospitals tell women who ask in advance they are fine with things and then when it comes right down to it pull this kind of crap in labor?)
Mom is getting stressed out by negotiations and contractions slow way down and nearly stop.
8 am hospital agrees to labor room births if mom signs paper acknowledging that delivering there may cause a delay in an emergency cesarean. Mom signs and the stres eases up.
9 am mom is contracting again regularly and strongly. Mom is completely dilated but baby's head is very high and to the side. We wait to begin pushing.
9:30 Head has come dowm, mom starts pushing. Mom is exhausted. (as am I and pretty much everyone in the room, except the nurse who just came on shift at 7 am.)
10 am baby's head is crowning.
10:10 baby A is born. She's tiny 3 lb 14 oz even though she's full term. Doing well, but pale. Because of her size and color, she only gets a few moments with mom before going to the NICU.
10:16 baby B is born. She's bigger 5 lb 11 oz, healthy and robust. She hangs out skin to skin on mom's chest.
11:05 placenta FINALLY comes. There are some abnormalities in the placenta & cord that explain why one baby had so much trouble growing. Midwife tells mom baby A is very lucky to have done as well as she did.
11:25 am help mom get started nursing baby B. Start packing up room for moving to a postpartum room.
11:50 Baby A comes back from NICU for a visit and to nurse. Help mom get baby A latched on as well. Grab dad's camera and take lots of pictures of mom nursing both babies.
12:30 Babies are done nursing. Baby A goes back to NICU. Finish getting room packed up to move upstairs.
12:45 With the nurse, help mom get up and to the bathroom, cleaned up and dressed in fresh clothes. Nurse tells us no postpartum rooms are open upstairs, which means mom will stay on L&D indefinitely. Mom likes this as L&D is much closer to the NICU. Sya goodbye to mom.
1 pm leave the hospital. Other doula drives me back to my van. Call 6 other teachers looking for someone to substitute my class tonight. Unsuccessful.
1:25 get in my van to drive home. Go through drive through for food, since package of graham crackers I snitched from the hospital at 7 am hasn't staved off hunger.
2 pm get home. Shower, say hello to family, wish Darrin a happy anniversary and ask him to make dinner & wake me at 5:30 so I can go to work. Get to bed about 2:45
5:30 Stumble out of bed, throw some clothes on, eat and leave for the hospital.
6:30 - 9:30 arrive at hospital, teach, clean up. Marvel that I can be coherent enough to teach.
10 arrive home. Give thanks for safe travel today. Spend an hour talking with Darrin. Some anniversary! We hardly saw each other and Darrin was stuck taking care of kids, cooking, and trying to work from home at the same time!
11:15 fall into bed for a delightful and much needed 9 hours of sleep in a row!
Being a doula can be very hard. Certainly the hours stink. And yet, somehow, I still LOVE my job!