Juggling and prioritising

The past year has flown by and I am proud to say that I have survived my time as a preceptee midwife!

I've personally delivered 12 cute little babies into the world and witnessed numerous couples becoming parents. I've supported women labouring naturally, women with epidurals, and women who have gone through days of the induction process. I've assisted normal deliveries, instrumental deliveries, elective c-sections and unfortunately too many emergency c-sections to count, but all for the same goal of achieving a safe and happy birth for both mother and baby.

All deliveries are unique and (I can't deny) scary at times — especially in an elective caesarean delivery when you look behind you in theatre and realise that you have sole responsibility for resuscitating the baby if it doesn't come out crying. Knife to skin seems to take forever and I find myself willing the baby to cry as I play out the neonatal resuscitation algorithm in my head. Thankfully all babies have behaved but my stress hormones often haven't!