Chapter 10
CHAPTER
TEN
AUDREY
“The new midwife was great to work with last night, and the midwives only have one patient on the floor as of now. You’ll have to let me know how the delivery goes with her.
She seems to be a great addition to the midwifery team,” Brittney, the charge nurse from last night’s shift, tells me as she gives report.
We have a team of ten midwives who work with their own patients, and the OBs only step in when patient care falls outside of the midwives’ scope of practice.
And depending on which doctor is on shift, sometimes they’ll monitor closely and still let the midwife deliver, which is something I love so dearly about Springs Hospital.
I take a break from scribbling notes on my Post-it and give Brittney a bright smile. “Oh, I’m so glad that she’s fitting right in. I can’t wait to work with her today.”
After finishing report, I go through my normal check-in with my three patients today. Two are GP1, meaning it’s their first pregnancy, low risk, and in the early stages of labor. Both are still in early labor. Plus before Brittney left she checked on the Midwife patient.
I continue running through the checklist to make sure my staff have what they need and that there aren’t any fires to put out yet. My favorite anesthesiologist is on for a twenty-four-hour shift, and all of our aides are thankfully here as well.
Today is going to be a good day.
Everything should be smooth and uneventful, but I won’t say it out loud because we never know what wild turn a birth can take.
Blood pressures are looking great, all the babies are staying on the monitors, and we surprisingly have a couple of open beds, so I head into the midwife’s patient room to introduce myself.
“Hi, I’m Audrey. I’ll be your nurse for today.”
The patient is sitting on the birthing ball swiveling her hips as the doula squeezes her from behind, applying counter pressure through her contraction. Instinctively, I check her portable monitor as she hits the peak of her contraction.
She takes a deep breath as she comes completely out of the contraction and releases it. “I’m so sorry about that. I don’t know where I go when these contractions hit me,” she says sweetly.
“Don’t you dare apologize. How are we feeling? Baby looks amazing, your vitals look amazing. Do you need anything from me?”
Her eyes remain closed as she breathes in and out. “I’m doing amazing.”
There’s a quiet knock at the door. “Just wanted to pop in—”
“Stevie?”
As she gets closer, I see the CNM behind her name. It does in fact read, Stevie. My shock must be evident because I haven’t seen her since my daughter’s senior year of high school, right before they graduated.
I know it’s probably unprofessional to do in front of a patient, but I can’t stop myself from wrapping my arms around her in a hug.
She grunts slightly when I squeeze her, and squeaks out, “Yeahhh, that’s me…”
Stevie’s never had any social media, so I have no clue what she’s been doing since high school. When Daniella moved away to go to college, they didn’t talk as much. She was always so smart and grew up with an absolute piece-of-shit mother, so she was at our house more often than not.
When I pull back, I grab her shoulders and feel like I could cry looking at her.
A look of shock flashes across her face, but I’m sure it’s because I’ve bombarded her in the patient’s room when she was ready to work.
She shakes her head slightly, and I watch as her professional mask slides back into place.
She’s no longer the teenage girl I knew back in the day.
Now, she’s completely covered in tattoos from what I can see, her black hair is longer than she used to keep it, and most importantly, she’s a midwife.
I feel the tears starting to well, and the bridge of my nose starts to feel heavy.
Happy tears form knowing she took control of her life after the shitty hand she was dealt.
“I’m so glad to have you here with us, Stevie.” She gives me a soft smile. “I have so many questions, but I’ll let you do your job, and we can chat out here after.”
And with that, I head out of the room and back to the nurses’ station to text Daniella.
Me
Did you know Stevie’s a midwife now?!
She just started here at the hospital with me!
Dani
I knew she was in school for it, but I didn’t know she had graduated already.
She was always super smart and ahead of me… so I guess it makes sense.
Tell her I miss her! And we should make plans for spring break!
Me
I will, honey! I hope school is going well!
She’ll leave me on read for bringing school up, but I can’t help but wonder about her education.
She should be in her senior year of school, but she can’t decide what she wants to do.
Bo and I have assured her she doesn’t have to finish school if it’s not for her, but she’s convinced her life will be over if she drops out without a degree.
So, we wait.
We’ll let her tell us if she needs us—like all the good parenting books and podcasts say.