Mrs Beauty.

It was Tuesday morning 5 am, (2 days before I would have to how to host 30 for Thanksgiving dinner) Mrs B says she thinks her water has broke, she is a week and a half from her due date. Every first time moms dream..to go early:) We talk about it a bit, she reports that it is clear and baby is active. We talk about what to watch for from here and agree on a time to meet to check on her and baby. Mid-morning she calls still not having contractions but feeling some minor cramping. I encourage to go walk like crazy and stay hydrated. After lunch she comes in with her sister and is having mild contractions 10 minutes apart. We decide to check her cervix which is 3 cm dialated and 50% effaced, I give it a little tweek and note that the baby is high in the pelvis. Heart tones are great and mom is excited. I instruct her to go walking again and to call me when things pick up. Less than an hour later..she reports that things have definitely changed the contractions are closer and stronger..she is at Target, buying the carseat and wonders what to do. I suggested she finish what she is doing and see how things go. She calls back a few minutes later to say they want to head to the Birth Inn. I let Brenda know and they all meet there a short time later. Brenda checks her but there has been no change in the cervix it's 3:30pm, so they get settled in and go walking again. At 5:oopm Mrs Beauty calls Brenda again and says it's getting harder, dad is putting the carseat together. Brenda goes over to the Birth Inn and listens to baby and checks her cervix again finding it still 3 cm. Mrs Beauty is determined to do what it takes and takes to walking again. At 7:30pm I go over to find mom just coming in from a walk. She is tolerating the labor very well. Upon exam I find the cervix 4 cm and 80% effaced with the baby still high in the pelvis. She decides to get in the tub which she finds very relaxing. At 9pm I check her again before I head home to nurse my baby. She is 4cm 90%effaced and the baby has come down significantly and is well applied to the cervix...yea. Many 1st time moms have to fully efface before making much progress with dialation. This is obviously true for her. The next hour she gets out of the tub sits on the birth ball they pray and sing. Brenda I both observe how completely beautiful she looks relaxing in the tub. She soon begins to feel some rectal pressure and is now 7 cm it's 10:20pm! At 11:30pm she is complete and moves from the toilet to the bed where she begins to push. The baby comes right down, she comes up to a squat and births the head, we lay her back and she delivers and 7lb girl at 11:43pm. t
The moral of this story is..sometimes 1st time moms take a lot of time getting going but once they get effaced things can move very quickly and sometimes they even deliver without a long pushing stage:) Nothing could be sweeter because the latent phase (0-3cm) is usually the easiest phase. This mom did what it took and didn't get discouraged despite the early slow progress! ddd