That time I was at a twin homebirth with a breech baby

Have I ever told you that midwives are my favorite people?

It’s so extraordinary to be in their presence - to be present with these light workers - midwives.

I walked in the door of a laboring mamas house - hearing her late labor cry’s through the open window. I intended to slip in unnoticed and sit in a corner, but the back-up midwife called my name the moment I entered - and the tone of her voice meant NOW!

Reaching for gloves in the box on floor, I came around the mama on hands and knees to the midwife - and there were a tiny pair of legs dangling in her lap.

Neither of us were expecting this- a planned twin homebirth, they were conferred vertex/vertex just days ago by the senior midwife:

Mom’s pushes brought the umbilicus into view- we crouched in suspended silence just like the baby. Then an arm dropped out to join the body suspended over the floor between her legs. The second arm was still inside and did not spontaneously release with the next push, so the back-up midwife swept in out and performed a gentle ‘chest press’ to bring the face visible. One push more and there was a tiny mewling babe - through his mamas legs he went, to meet her face to face.

Whew! Relief, but …. There’s one more baby still to come- contractions resume immediately but bearing down is not bringing baby B. The back-up midwife can’t even feel the baby, they’re so high, so mom shifts to the squatting stool and I check- bulging bag. We ask if she would like us to release it- “Of Course”, she says as if we were daft for not already doing it. 😅

A gush of fluid and a strong urge- much stronger than for baby A- and another and another. We wonder aloud if she wants to change position- she says, “yes, after this contraction’”.

The senior midwife had arrives now and squeezes my shoulder to let me know she’s got my back, as I have had her’s. 🥰

A big push and baby’s head is suddenly visible - one more steady effort and the whole body appears all at once into my hands; born ‘sunny side up’.

The babies laid together on mama’s chest, while she leaned on papa’s chest, and we all beamed at each other. It was then that I realized the room was literally FULL of midwives and students 🥰 they were doing what I had intended to do - sitting quietly in corners, smiling ear to ear.

For many of them it was their second and third births of the day, and there was talk of another mama with released waters waiting on them. This is a busy crew!

I am repeatedly humbled and shocked at the power and the grace and the grit and the flexibility of midwives. Even though I may be almost the newest member of this team, I experienced the exquisite feeling of being welcomed.

Babies were nursed and weighed, snuggles by siblings and aunties and mama got comfy, after confirming her perineum was intact, and ate a big bowl of chili!

We midwives are truly elemental, slipping like the water between the rocks of life; turning, as one, like birds in the sky. It is the highest, most profound calling in humanity, to sit at the threshold of life and the special beings called to this work, called midwives, are a holy bunch!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the high honor of soaring in your ranks.

🙏 Love,

Augustine