There's no do over in birth.....

Don't ever let anyone tell you midwifery is an easy job. Don't let anyone tell you that midwifery and the art of caring for women during their journey through their prenatal course and their birth is something that you can learn in a year or two of reading and watching.
Maintaining safety while helping a mom achieve her strongest desire is more than difficult and trying sometimes....you might even lose sleep over it some nights. Sometimes there are extremely hard judgment calls to make. And sometimes a midwife has to make a call that may not be so popular. But a good midwife who's worked hard to learn her art and has learned to trust her gut instinct knows that when she fails to listen to it she can loose more than sleep.
Also, I've always had two mottos. There is never a crystal ball which you can rely on to lead you to the "right" decision. And, unfortunately, there are no "do overs" in midwifery. Plain and simple. Oh yeah, there's a third. When natural labor ( and the prep before labor....you know the cervical ripening, the descent of the baby, ensuing labor, etc.) and birth works...it's like a well-oiled machine. CLick, click, click. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock. Working like God planned. Like a rose unveiling it's beauty. Like the tide rolling in and then returning back to the sea. A simply beautiful thing.Those labors and birth make midwifey seem like an easy job. Sit back, take it all in, watch and wait.
It's the labor that won't come, the baby that won't descend and the abnormal things that present themselves, some so very subtle, that drives even the most calm midwife to lose a few hairs to the color grey. FOr now....Janet