WINNIPEG (Staff) – Marla Gross has been a practising midwife in Winnipeg since 1984. On average, she helps three or four women give birth each month at home or in hospitals.
Here’s Gross’s account of a birth she attended on Aug. 14:
“It was the mother’s second baby and she had mild contractions during the day, Aug. 13. The next morning at about 2:25 a.m. she called, and said her contractions were getting much stronger.
“So I headed over, and when I got there she was in the bathtub. Her husband was awake.
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“Her contractions were strong when they happened, but they spaced out, so she was still quite cheerful about labor. She got up a couple of times to go to the bathroom.
“She thought she wanted a cup of coffee, but promptly threw it up.
“So she got back in the tub, and getting out to go to the bathroom was kind of the activity of her labor.
“Her hot water tank ran out of water, so I boiled water (laughs). She has a great pasta pot. I just kept it going on the stove. We’d drain a bit of water and just add some hot.
“About 5:45 a.m. or so, things picked up. She got to … the transition phase, where things were not fun any more.
“At 6:20 a.m., her baby girl was born.
“She had gotten out of the tub between 6:10 a.m. and 6:15 a.m. to go to the bathroom, and her water broke. Got back in the tub, and pushed her baby out, no problem. Well, easy for me to say, right?
“It was hard work, but her perineum was intact, her baby was perfect.
Family celebration
“The other grandparents were camping in the yard, so I ran out and woke them up. Her mom and son had also woken up.
“Everyone came in, but the mom was discreetly covered with a towel over the baby, over her, in the bath, so it was pleasant.
“She had the placenta in the bath. We drained all that out, cut the cord and filled it up with more water. She had a bath with the baby, then got up.
“We did the newborn exam, and she had some porridge, and phoned her dad. Her dad was the only one who was not able to come.
Then, the father of the newborn laid on the couch with the baby on his chest and fell asleep. And grandma took the older child outside for a little while, and I got the mom tucked back into bed.
“It was a really nice birth.”
