BEING A GRANNY AND ATTENDING THE BIRTH

Last week I was blessed to be at the water birth of my grandson.
When my daughter and son in law asked me I was a bit unsure, as labour is a painful and serious business and is not my idea of a spectator sport.
3am my phone went, come up to the local hospital they are filling the birthing pool.

I shook myself awake and started walking/running up the brae to the hospital.

It was very light for that time of the morning.
I arrived at the hospital it was all locked up and one of the nurses came and let me in and directed me to the ward where my daughter was.

When I got there she was sitting on a bean bag and was feeling very sick, she actually had been a couple of times before I arrived.
She was in the zone as the midwife said. Breathing and panting through the pain and the nausea.
This was what I was worried about, watching her suffer.

The pool was filling up and had another 10 minutes to go till it was full.
I just sat there, nothing to do really and certainly did not want to say or do the wrong thing, and its really easy for mums to do that :)

I wondered vaguely how long this would take.
Remembering my own labour with her I thought it would not be long, but was not sure if this was wishful thinking. Then the pool was ready and she got in. Within a minute or so the relief was obvious.
She even started chatting in between contractions which were now only a couple of minutes apart.
The midwife was very attentive, gentle and supportive and I marvelled at how things have improved in the last 30 years and how incredibly lucky you were in the Country to have this bespoke service. Nothing like the RAH.
I mum to be and 1 midwife with another to join soon.
Again I was feeling this baby is on the way out but did not want to say incase it was not true. The pain had gone up a notch and clearly the barrier for coping was getting breached.

I heard the noise and knew it was coming, the membrane had not burst, I saw it appearing first in the pool. The angle was kind and easy to watch, and I said to my daughter who was in intense pain "its there, the baby is there". They looked for something to break the membrane but before they had time the next pain came and the baby flew into the pool.
The midwife picked him up, took the bag off his head and gave him to my son in law who was in the pool behind my daughter. I was in tears with this miracle unfolding infront of me as I heard "its a boy". I was so away on what had just happened I had not even thought of the sex.
Whats his name I asked them, "Nicol" my dads name, he passed on the 19th January and they had told me if the baby was a boy they were going to name him after, but some how I forgot. I cried tears of joy now, what a moment and even sweeter later to realise it was Fathers day.

The circle of life has been evident for us over the last 6 months with many deaths of our own family and that of close friends. Now its time for the new babies and the joy that brings helps you see that this is how it is.

How lucky the families in Argyll are to have this wonderful, caring, specialised one to one opportunity on their doorstep and with this awesome pool.
Another great reason to live in the Country alongside Mother Nature.