2020 the year of the Midwife

We have had a moment to look into our stats for 2020! What a year this was. We would like to highlight the most important aspects of the stats as well as a little look back into the highlights of the year and the lessons we’ve learnt.

Firstly, we had the immense honor of journeying with 87 clients throughout the year of 2020. 75% of those were natural births. VBAC’s are a big passion of ours; therefore it was great to see that 39% of our clients came to us seeking a VBAC. We managed to achieve a 67% success rate with the VBACs. Another passion of ours is homebirths and 47% of our clients had homebirths, with only three transfers from home to hospital.

January, February and March were still pretty normal months, before the chaos of Covid 19 hit us. We were witness to beautiful births and immense strength from all the mommies. We realized how important a supportive team is in this process and to make sure that everyone is on board with the plans, and the backup plan is secured for if there are any problems. We also learnt that regardless of the outcome, there could always be a positive experience if the mom and family feels supported and loved in their experience.

Our first birth in lockdown was a homebirth. Looking back, it seems that this was the predictor of how labour and birth can be affected by the global stress around us. The labours began to get longer and this particular labour was very long. We pushed through for as long as everyone could but eventually we transferred to hospital. Sometimes medical intervention is necessary and that’s ok. This mommy still had a natural birth; the hardest part was that hubby could not be present because of the covid regulations. These restrictions were going to be the hardest part of this process.

May also had long labours and surprisingly for our second time moms as well. We supported them all through and then right at the end of the month we had a quick and easy first time mom homebirth. We believe we experienced that just to show us how unpredictable birth is, we never really know how long or short labour will be, all we know is that we will be there to support in the best way possible. June was the same, very unpredictable, but what we truly learnt is how strong a woman is. One client came to us at 36 weeks because she had been told that she couldn’t give natural birth for no solid medical reason. We managed to take her on. This mommy had a beautiful natural birth in her own bath at home because there was no time to set up the birth pool. Labour was 3 hours and 45 minutes. Once again, we came to realize that no one can certainly predict if a woman can birth, without allowing labour to start.

July was a busy month and we learnt to focus on teamwork. We are truly blessed to work in a beautiful partnership, where sometimes words are not even needed to communicate, it just happens. We had to call on another midwife to help out during the month because occasionally babies decide to come at the same time. August gave us a bit of a break. We didn’t have many natural births, but it showed us that its not all about how you birth, but more about how you treated.

September was another very busy month. We did our first birth at TLC birthing centre in Linksfield and it was really lovely to do a birth in such a supportive environment. October taught us a lot of patience, as one baby decided to test all the limits as to how long one can stay inside for. He did grace us with his presence in a beautiful homebirth just to show us he knew when was best to arrive!

November began to take its toll. Being on call 24/7 in and amongst the uncertainty of the pandemic showed us that leave was necessary. Taking some leave was really beneficial. It’s hard to explain what being a midwife means, because even when we aren’t physically present with a client, there is always a client in the back of our minds. So we started to look into how the practice is run and changes that need to be made to benefit everyone.

December was also a busy month. The first official lockdown babies made their appearances. Luckily for us, most of them arrived before Christmas! And this was the month to teach us that we can guide and educate to the best of our ability, but eventually it is the client who walks the journey and makes their choices, which pave the way in their birth.  Once again thank you to all our 2020 babies and families. We know it wasn’t easy for anyone and we appreciate all the support and trust you placed in us. We don’t take for granted the immense honor it is to do the work we do!