And.... we're back

After a year long-hiatus, I'm back to the bloggesphere. Perhaps inspired by a huge transition and a new job, or requests from disappointed family and friends to start writing again, or perhaps because I missed public reflection on my career choice.

In short... since I posted last - I've graduated from a master's program in nurse-midwifery, passed my boards, applied for and accepted a job as a midwife at a large public teaching hospital in an inner city, visited Costa Rica and Israel, eaten lots of felafel balls and musli, and settled into an apartment with my fiance which feels like home.

Yesterday was my first true-day at work. I am only allowed to observe, as I am not yet privileged at the hospital. What a different place from the small, touchy-feely hospital where I did my training. There are no tubs, and only one doppler for intermittent auscultation (vs. continuous monitoring... the not-evidence-based-standard), which certainly speaks to the lack of it's use and there are no tubs in any of the rooms. There is a contraption, hidden in a closet, called an aqua doula - a portable tub which requires about 10 different small metal pieces to hook it up to be filled in by a sink (!!). Um, yeah, you guessed it. No one uses it.

Perhaps auspiciously, however, the first birth I witnessed there was a precipitous totally unmediated birth by a 19 year old woman. She was in control, in rip-roaring labor, and ready to give birth when she arrived. I learned, in watching her birth, that as new as I am, I have my own style, and was surprised by some of the hand techniques of those around me. I found myself, although rendered to the side of the bed to observe only, desperately wanting to touch and jump in hands first. It was not the birth that I would have conducted exactly, but it didn't matter. I was reminded, that even with 1 clueless but curious male medical student, one nervous ER intern catching, one experienced midwife, one inexperienced observing midwife, one nervous boyfriend, and two nurses at change-of-shift, birth is beautiful.