Typical Day
It's 2:00AM, and Tina Dancer's sleeping soundly in her bed at home. Knowing what she knows about how babies really sleep, she'd never refer to it as sleeping like a baby, so we'll just say Tina's fast asleep. Suddenly the phone rings. Tina rolls over and picks it up.
"Hello?" Tina says in a groggy, still-mostly-asleep voice.
"Tina. Hi. It's Mary," says a strained and tense voice on the other line. Tina knows that tone of voice. She sighs and sits up, turning on the bedside lamp.
"How far apart are the contractions, Mary?"
Tina and Mary talk for a bit longer, and after assessing the situation Tina agrees to meet Mary at the birth center—this baby's probably on its way. She fumbles around in the dark for her scrubs, brushes her teeth, pulls her hair back into a functional ponytail, and drives to the birth center at 3:00AM.
At the birth center, Tina rummages through her office, pulling the granola bar that she stashed for late night/early morning calls like these from its hiding spot. It's a little dry, but does the trick.
She hears the doorbell ring, and sees Mary and her husband Rick through the glass. She opens the door and walks out to greet them. The couple's buzzing with nervous excitement. Tina's touched by the expectant parents' understandable emotions, and feels herself waking up.
While she fills out the paperwork, the couple chatters away, excitedly texting all their family members. After situating the mom-to-be, Tina heads back to the office. She spends the morning making rounds between the charting, scheduling, and emailing that make up the boring bulk of the job and dropping in on the couple every thirty minutes or so.
Patience may be a virtue, but in the birth world it's also a requirement.
Tina's thankful for the more relaxed pace of her job at the birth center. She used to work at a hospital ward, but after more than ten years of semi-chaos she's found a much more settling atmosphere. She's no longer scrambling between different patients, rushing new mothers out of the hospital in under two hours, and generally feeling herself burning out.
She took a slight pay cut to come to the birth center, but she gets to spend more time with the mothers on one of the happiest days of their lives.
The hours pass and Mary's still in labor. Tina wanders back into the birth center's kitchen around 9:00AM to scrounge for some more food. Just as she flicks on the lights, she hears a yell come from down the hall in a high-pitched, loud, and urgent voice:
"TINAAAAAAAAAA!"
That was Rick, the father-to-be. It's time.
Tina heads back into the birthing room, where she arranges her different instruments and tools within easy reach. She talks to the mother in a calm and measured voice, in part to coach her through the process, but mostly to keep her from freaking out any more than she already is.
With a few well-timed pushes and some serious flop-sweat on everyone's part, the baby exits its mother and enters the world (welcome, child). Thankfully there are no complications with this birth, and within minutes a human life has landed in Tina's hands. Tina passes the baby into Mary's waiting hands, and gives the couple some time alone with their new child.
Not that much time alone, though; just before 10:00AM, she heads back into the delivery room where the entire extended family has gathered to greet the new child.
There are forms to be signed, measurements to be taken, pills to be distributed, IVs to be hooked up, advice to be 'splained—and of course, photos to be taken. Tina says, "Cheese," as grandma snaps a good one with her smartphone, then finishes with Mary and Rick alone.
As the baby starts becoming fussy, Tina takes that as her cue to leave. The orderlies on the birth center staff can take it from here.
Around 11:30AM, while Tina's enjoying her breakfast (or is it lunch?) at the sandwich shop next to the birth center, she hears her cellphone ring. Since babies have a habit of coming whenever they feel like it, midwives can never be far from their phones, no matter what time of day. Not even lunch time.
On the phone is another new mother going into labor. This time, Tina's going to make a house call.
Tina heads back to the center and packs her clinical supplies in her large medical bag, anything she could possibly need during the birthing process. She also grabs a haphazard assortment of herbs, essential oils, and other homeopathic medicines just in case it's going to be that kind of situation.
She arrives at the house a little after 12:00PM. The mother, surrounded by a throng of anxiously chattering family members, is far along in the process. Tina's relieved to discover that everything seems normal. Shooing the family out of the room, Tina gets to work.
At 1:30PM, Tina re-emerges, exhausted and dripping, with the second completely healthy baby of the day. Since this mother already has two kids, Tina doesn't give a lot of the routine new mom advice that she gave to Mary earlier in the day. However, there are still all the forms to be signed—there's just no way out of that.
She leaves the house at 3:00PM. Even though the sun has barely begun its descent, Tina's been running on three hours of sleep for the past twelve hours of work. Checking the calendar on her phone, she sees that there aren't any due dates for the next three days. That means she should be in the clear for at least the next couple of hours or so—or not; as we said, babies come when they feel like it.
Miraculously, Tina makes it home without falling asleep at the wheel. She heads to the kitchen, but is so tired she almost falls asleep making a sandwich. She decides to call it a night at 3:30PM, and heads upstairs for a good night's sleep.
A good night's sleep that comes to an end at 9:30PM with a phone call and a tense voice on the other line. Here comes another one.