Meeting Dinah

Dinah Waranch is our midwife, and she is fantastic.  

A few weeks ago we met her for the first time.  When we walked into the birthing center, we found it basically empty but could hear two people talking in one of the front offices.  

I turned to Daniel and said, "somebody in there is BRITISH!"  And it turned out to be Dinah!

To call her "animated" is an understatement.  She's delightfully funny, hippie, yet down-to-earth and still has that "warm fuzzy" (her words) quality you'd expect from a midwife.  After we got acquainted a little, she showed us around the clinic.

The birthing center has a "family room", a small kitchen area, and 2 large birthing rooms, complete with a standing shower and a large tub.  

We were admiring the nice, large room when she began to help us understand what a "normal" birth in the room would look like.

 

Dinah:

"So then Kimie will be over there on the toilet, and she'll be going 'ohhhhhh,' (groaning) and then I'll say, 'uh-oh... looks like you need to get in the tub,' and so she'll come over here (kicking off sandals and getting into tub), and she'll climb in, and then she'll say, 'oh, that feels so much better!' and then after a little while she'll change positions like this (demonstrating), and she'll be going, 'ohhhhh  ohhhhh' (more groaning here) and then before you know it, there will be the head! And we'll put a mirror there, and ooh! There's a baby!  Out she comes! And I'll hand her to Daniel (handing Daniel the imaginary baby, to whom he held out his arms--so engrossed were we in this drama), or maybe Daniel will catch her himself.  And you'll both be saying, 'she's perfect!' and we'll all just sit here for 5 or 10 minutes until you realize you're cold and uncomfortable and want to go to the bed (out she climbs from the tub--and runs to the bed).  And Daniel will take her and sit here (gesturing to the chair) while Kimie gets settled in bed (getting herself settled in bed), and before long Kimie will realize that she needs something!  Kimie--what do you need?  Quick! This is a test!  

What do you need?"

Me: 

     "Salmon?"

Dinah: 

     "Oh, well--Salmon--I love that--but no, the BABY! You need the baby!  So over she comes right to you to start breastfeeding. And then bloop--out comes the placenta, and--if necessary--stitch, stitch, stitch and you're good as new!  And there we are--all there is to it!"  

We were wide-eyed--lemme tell you.   

(The photos in this post come from the Lovers Lane Birth Center website)