Life is precious......

Wow! What a day! What a difference a day can make......
Today I was called by a friend who needed my help. The kind of help I like to give....someone was having a baby and they needed an extra pair of hands. I love to attend homebirths. I am a midwife assistant and I love being with people during their happiest times. I don't get to attend homebirths very often, but occasionally when there is more than one family having their babies at the same time I get the privilege of taking part.
Today we welcomed a sweet baby girl into the world, she joined a family of two big brothers and parents who had waited a long nine months to see her. The labor was long, the work was hard, the mother was amazing at how hard she worked. She did everything we ask of her, she ate when she didn't want to, she drank when she didn't feel like it. She refrained from pushing when we saw that the baby needed a break. She was diligent at her job. Little baby girl came slowly with a brow presenting, and when she finally made her appearance she didn't want to stay...... she wasn't breathing, her heart wasn't beating, she was floppy, she was blue, she was everything you DON'T want to see. Instead of the calm, happy arrival that is the picture in everyone's mind, we had quite a different event. Everyone flew into action as oxygen was turned on, resuscitation was started, 911 was called, praying was loud and pleading.
Before the ambulance arrived we had a good heartbeat but little darling wasn't breathing on her own. We handed her over to medics with uncertainty in our hearts. What was wrong, why didn't she respond like we wanted her to???? The questions lingered in our hearts, as we stayed behind to clean up the house and gather our belongings. We rehashed the day, questioned our moves, went through the 'would haves, should haves' and what more could haves???? What if's gathered about our heads and then I spoke life about her----I declared she would be okay! I said it with certainty because I wanted to claim it. Was it going to make a difference, I wasn't sure, but it sure wasn't going to hurt!
Later I heard that hospital A was going to transport to hospital B and they thought she would be okay, even though she still wasn't breathing on her own yet. She was being treated for an infection. I hopefully will hear more tomorrow.
So what did I learn today? I was reminded that you never take a birth for granted. Every birth is it's own and holds true to no one's rules. Life can't be taken for granted, at any stage in the game. Every birth has a lesson, a lesson for the midwife, the assistants and the parents. We all take from it what we are willing to learn.
The day held it's amount of stress and my body doesn't respond the best to stress anymore! But I'm thankful for my lessons and for the reminder that life is precious and how good it is when newborn babies breath......