Liveblogging home birth!
Momcast is in labor and it looks like her membranes may have just ruptured. Read about her birth as she (and soon someone else) blogs the details at Momcast!
Busy, busy!
Bear with me dear readers! I have just begun the process of moving “home” from Colorado to California. The first shift ended earlier this week with my Honda Element piled high with bags and daughters for the 24-hour road trip. Usually I have two adult drivers when making the drive and we can do it in about 14 hours, but with me alone at the wheel there was two 4-hour nap stops added in to stay awake AND alive!
I have begun the process to scout office space and get my midwifery practice established here. Strangely enough office space zoned for medical use in full view of one the most posh hospitals (we’re talking rooms in L&D with ocean views) in the county is reasonably priced. Now the decision I need to make as I shop is will I continue to attend home births only or look for space large enough to house a birth center?
Sweet excerpt from the book, “Call the Midwife”
From the Daily Mail: 
Thick grey smog swirled through the grim dockside streets as two policemen disappeared into the dark on a desperate mission to find medical help for the delirious Conchita Warren.
In the early 1950s, smog regularly paralysed east London, and the officers couldn’t see a hand in front of them.
Inside her small home, Conchita was writhing on a bed, trying to give birth to - unbelievably - her 25th child. As her devoted husband Len, who had brought her back from the Spanish Civil War when she was still in her mid teens, tried to soothe her, Conchita began to scream.
Terror blazed from her unseeing eyes as she tore at Len’s face, chest and arms until they bled.
I had been training for a year as a midwife with the nuns of the Nonnatus Convent in the east end of London when I witnessed this scene. I had been aghast when Conchita’s family called the convent earlier that evening to report that she had been knocked unconscious by a fall in her icy backyard. She was now in a fevered state, with her baby on the way, two months early. Could I come quickly?
How was I to find my way on my bicycle to her house in Limehouse, three miles from the docklands convent, in nil visibility? And how was I to get her expert medical help in this appalling weather?
I reached Conchita only after two local policemen, also on bicycles, were dispatched to escort me through the foggy night. Now I was with her, I knew she could die without immediate treatment.
The situation seemed bleak, but that night I was to witness some amazing events, including a medical effort so concerted that it seems almost incredible now. We live in an era of 24-hour health advice lines when house visits by GPs are rare, but back on that 1950s night, the health service’s best came right to Conchita Warren’s door.
Adapted from Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on June 13 at £12.99. To order a copy (p&p free), call 0870 161 0870.
Baby bliss
Podcasts
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Or listen/watch each Podcast on demand:
Podcast 1: Midwives
Podcast 2: Birth Places
Podcast 3: Thinking About Home Birth
Podcast 4: The Birth Kit
Podcast 5: Interview with Ricki Lake