Keep off the bed? Not this time!

I follow a lot of midwifery related people on twitter, it's great, keeps you up to date with what's happening all over the world. With regard to helping women birth their babies, there is a theme running through most posts. Keep women off the bed, have good support, birth in water if you can and allay the fears. I agree with all of that, but sometimes you have to follow your instinct.
I was looking after a first time mum, whose partner was no longer on the scene. She had her sister and friend with her, both mothers themselves. One had had a pool birth at home and the other a hospital birth as was this one, the pool wasn't available due to a stupid hospital decision,( more of that another time! ) She was 36+ weeks and had gone into labour spontaneously, the baby looked a good size. She was sat out of bed ,on the birthing ball and all was going well. But she was as scared as I've seen anybody. She was approaching transition but we could all see that her body was going to shut down, every change of type of contraction just scared the whits out of her. I could see 2 different dynamics in the room. Her "pool birth" friend was calm, relaxed and did not say much. Her sister frantically rubbed her back, told her to calm down and she would be OK. How to break this situation? I asked what position she was most comfortable she was in just before she dropped off to sleep. On her side with pillows between her legs and underneath her tummy. The bed was arranged and she sank into it. We could all palpably feel the tension leave her and she stayed in that position till her lovely baby was born an hour later.
In general yes, stay off the bed, birth partners are vital, if they are the right ones. Sometimes beds are good places to birth a baby!

Active Birth

I see it is 30 years since the push for active birth began. I have been a midwife for35 years (!) a little longer the movement.
When I qualified I couldn't wait to be able to practise normal midwifery,  then vaginal breech and twins were regarded as normal. I knew I was practising "differently" when I told colleagues that the mum I was  with  did not require suturing to be told "it was nothing to be proud about"!
Michel Odent came to give a talk near me, and it was truly inspiring, along with another man called Leboyer (Birth without Violence) set me on the path for women led birthing
Then I had my first baby, looked after by friends, sat upright in a dimly lit room and I lifted my own baby out into the world, quite an event for 1980!. Ever since then I have tried to go with mothers wants and needs, I wasn't alone,  in our unit I worked with like minded people, it has always been a bit of a battle to change long held views and practises and thanks to a great team and two fab midwives we were runners up in the RCM awards for promoting normality. It is great to see that we are still training midwives who have this innate belief in women to do what we have always known they could do, birth their babies naturally
We have always needed cheerleaders to help us so, thank you to Janet Balaskas, Michel Odent, Frederick Leboyer, Andrea Robertson, and my recent discoveries made through the wonder of twitter!
I am coming towards the end of my working life, I know the profession is in good hands and women will go on being able to give birth in the way they want to!

a Wonderful Birth.

Some births just stay lodged in your memory bank, this was one of those. I was working with a student midwife, and around 1 in the morning a second time mum came in to the labour ward contracting. Her first birth had not been a good one and she was very anxious. We, along with her partner tried to allay her fears, helped her into a soothing lavender bath and encouraged her through the early stages.
The birth was getting close and our mum had retreated into herself and was concentrating hard. We were silent, words were not necessary.
As the baby began to emerge, the song playing was" Hallelujah" and the baby was born to this wonderful anthem. The dad was in tears and so were we, it was truly awesome. The mum had a smile on her face that lasted till she went home.
We got a lovely letter from her saying how she had enjoyed this birth and that her daughter was thriving.
Times like this remind me why I love this job.