She is here! We picked her up from the airport on Sunday. We are getting on so well and have lots of interesting conversations about birth, the medical establishment and changing attitudes. In fact she told me that recently the Royal College of Obstetricians in the UK recently stated that more women should be birthing at home, which came as quite a surprise to midwives in the UK. With regards to me I am feeling very confident in my abilities to birth and am actually looking forward to the whole experience and am so excited about meeting my baby face to face for the first time. Sigh of wonderment.
The day our midwife arrived she gave me a full check. It was amazing to see someone examine my belly with her hands, gently pushing and feeling around, most OBs just use scans nowadays and have lost this art. She explained to me clearly how baby is lying. She said she can feel two fingers width of the baby's head at the top of my pelvis, the rest of the head is down inside, the baby is lying with her back to my belly on my left side. She explained this was the best position for birth as the baby only needs to turn minimally to be born. She confirmed that my level of amniotic fluid was good and then we all listened to the heart beat on her little machine - which is waterproof and so can be used when I am labouring in the pool. Pebbles' heartbeat is good and it was wonderful to hear it again. I also did some urine testing and all was fine. She has offered to check me whenever I want but would normally only do it once a week at this stage but she said it's up to me if I would like it more regularly. I feel very lucky to have my midwife here 24/7, it has made me feel more confident and calm, that's for sure.
I feel myself getting bigger by the day and I can no longer sleep the night through. I was so thankful that throughout my pregnancy I only ever needed to get up at 7am to pee. Now it has become 4am. And I find it impossible to fall back asleep after this. But I suppose this is a good sign that baby's head is dropping down deeper into my pelvis and that it is getting bigger too. I am also immensely thankful that the temperature has dropped down to a much more doable 32C (89F) and that there is a lovely cool breeze in the air. So our Moroccan July has become more like April. And for that Universe I am very very appreciative. Long may this feeling of well-being and confidence continue.
