I met Erin towards the end of her first trimester when she and her husband decided they wanted to welcome their first baby in the comfort of their own home. Erin’s husband, Nick knew my husband growing up and it was fun getting to know them in their consult and hearing how excited they were to find a midwife they “sort of” knew! It was a blast walking with Erin throughout her pregnancy and seeing her grow her baby and prepare for motherhood. Erin was an active ballet dancer and amazed me with her ability to dance right up until the week she went into labor! She was such a trooper through all the changes pregnancy brought about her in body and I knew she would be just as resilient in labor!
We assumed Erin would go overdue and prepared for a 41 week appointment only for me to receive a text from Erin that she felt like she might be in early labor and on her due date even! I was excited to meet this little baby and kept Erin in the know about when to call me. Erin had an amazing doula in Jenna Montgomery and I kept a close watch on my phone for updates from her. She let me know Erin was feeling more pressure and might be interested in pushing so I decided to head over to see her early in the morning. I stayed observing her for an hour but her pushing efforts seemed off to me and we decided to do an exam and found her to be 5cm though baby was VERY low (which would explain the pressure she was feeling)! We chatted about our plan and decided it would be best for me to go home and rest and for her to continue to labor with her doula. Everything progressed as expected and I was called back in at 12:30pm a few hours after I had left. Jenna reported that Erin was feeling a much stronger urge to push but that she was in a lot of pain with it and couldn’t handle it much longer! I raced over to Erin’s house and after an exam found her to be completely dilated! We were all excited her labor journey was almost done and I was so impressed with how strong Erin was when she had told me earlier in the day that she would not be able to go much longer! Now look at where she was! Erin began to push outside the pool and when baby came closer to crowning, we decided to get her back in the pool. With just a few more pushes and just one hour after starting to push, Erin brought her sweet boy into this world! Little Joshua joined us at 2:08pm on 3/22/17 (his due date even!) weighing in at 7#9oz! What a special birth to be allowed to participate in! Thank you Joshua and family for allowing me to be present for this very special moment in your lives, it was an honor!