Back at Uni

I finished my last week on birth unit, and even managed to be the accoucheur (the catcher) for a couple of bubs. I feel like I really need to get into the swing of births again, since so many of the once I was at over Christmas and the first part of the year were either C sections or instrumental. They were both lovely births with healthy babies. I'm always struck by how amazing women's bodies are, and the emotion of childbirth when it goes 'normally' like that. One minute you have a woman who is clearly in pain, working so hard, then those tricky moments when the head emerges and then- suddenly- this slippery, warm creature slides out into your hands (usually with a look of extreme grumpiness on its face) to be handed up to the mother's chest. And instantly that look of pain is gone. The emotion switches to elation and joy in an instant. No matter what we midwives continue to do down the other end, delivering the placenta, checking for tears, suturing, the mother is more or less oblivious to it. It's like there is an invisible wall between that little family and us.

Now it's back at uni for the next 4 weeks, in which time I have 5 exams. Then 6 weeks off! Yay! I need to just take some time to settle down again, get the house back in order and sit out in the sun.