midwifery | Flamidwyfe's Blog

We often forget this in our lives. As a midwife in the States, I was on call 24/7/365, as you are when you are an independent midwife. One of the benefits to moving to Abu Dhabi was shift work. I worked 14 12-hour days a month. Bliss.

I am now in an administrative position at a hospital in China. However, I have a handful of patients and this quote popped out at me today because of a sticky situation I’m in. Two of my amazing women are due March 8 & March 12th and I HAVE TO DO A BORDER RUN… no later than March 10th! And you might say, “well priority says you do your border run”… but this isn’t what is best for my two ladies that are depending on me being at their birth, protecting them from an 80% c/section rate, and providing them with the compassion they’ve come to appreciate. And I, of course, want to be there for them.

Needless to say, we’re going to see if I can get an extension on my visa tomorrow, that will give me a month more to have to worry about it, which would be IDEAL… putting that out to the universe 😀

So, this is a reminder that we may just think we’re “someone” in this world, but we may mean the world to someone else!

This morning, just before the end of my shift I had a lady come up from urgent care, really cracking on. Regular contractions started at 6 a.m., SROM at 630 a.m., arrived on delivery unit at 700 a.m., delivery at 720 a.m. Things generally happen that fast for a reason, and this is why I think this one did:

A velamentous insertion of the umbilical cord into the membranes, instead of the placenta. Sent chills up my spine. I asked and got permission from the mom to take these pictures and explained the significance. I love how birth always keeps me on my toes!

Update on the diet and exercise plan… I am down 21 pounds. I am still either bike riding 13 km or walking 6.5 km 3x a week and loving it. Walking and biking on the Corniche (the waterfront) is wonderful right now, the weather is decent and not so hot and the view is beautiful. Here’s a pic of my friend Karen and I biking a couple of weeks ago:

On hot days or days when the sand is a blowin’ I walk the mall. Gets a little boring after a while though. I also started a new diet program. Although Atkins was working for me, I was getting bored to tears with it. There are a few companies here that prepare and deliver food to order daily. I chose one that not only is providing me with a low calorie, low fat option, but is also providing me gluten free food AND it’s organic! They deliver all 3 meals and 2 snacks each evening… that’s the food for the next day.. There is LOTS of food and the variety is excellent. I had Lebanese for breakfast and Indian for lunch today, for example. Dinner is a chicken Cesar salad with gluten free croutons… yum!