I was called at 3:30am, to come to the hospital and be a doula for Consuelo, a third time mama in early labor. She had been checked at 2cm, some time earlier, but her baby was suspected to be posterior,since she was having pretty bad back pain. Consuelo is from Mexico and speaks mainly Spanish, but understands English fairly well. I got over my shyness and got to practice my Spanish with her and her partner.
       Her husband slept for a few hours when I first arrived, so I helped by pressing on her hips and sacrum, and massaging her shoulders. The nurse and I rocked the baby in the rebozo, and I attempted the baby churn with my hands to try and encourage the baby to turn.  Baby seemed to shift some, and Consuelo said it eased the back pain a bit, but that didn't seem to last.   She dilated at about 1cm every 2 hours, which was steady, but a bit discouraging, as her last labor, eight years ago, had been only 5 hours long.
       Around 7am, I suggested she get in the tub, since labor seemed active and strong by then, and she was getting pretty uncomfortable. I went down the hall to turn on the water, and when I returned, the nurse was there helping her to quickly get on hands and knees. There had been a drop in baby’s heart rate that lasted a couple of minutes and was quite alarming, but it soon returned to normal. We decided to wait on getting in the tub to see what the doctor thought, in light of this occurance. He soon arrived, and told her that if baby’s heart rate kept dropping like that, she would need a c-section. He showed her the monitor strip and said to be sure and call the nurse right away if it happened again, and no she could not get in the water. He thought it was just to risky. He said that later, when the next doctor's shift began, he might have another opinion and let her get in the water. I was suprised and disappointed to hear him talking in this way to her, as though she should keep her eye on the monitor just to be sure, as though a c-section was on the horizon.
      After he left, all was well, and there were no more heart problems. A couple of hours went by and the next doctor on call did indeed say that with contstant monitoring, she could get in the tub. Her friend arrived and stayed about half an hour. She was very comforting and assured Consuelo that the water would be very helpful, so she decided to get in after her exam. She was dilated to 5 cm.
       She stayed in the water for close to an hour, half the time with the jets on, and then got out and back into the rocking chair. She did try the birth ball and hands and knees briefly, but seemed most relaxed in the rocking chair with a hot pack behind her low back. Around 12:00, she seemed to reach transition. Contractions were coming on quickly and strong, and she was starting to have doubts about going on, asking for pain meds. Her husband was strong and so supportive, and together we held her and encouraged her and got her to move a little bit, getting back on the ball, on the bed, in the chair. She had a little medicine to ease the pain, but was reaching the end of her hope.
       She soon was having a hard time not pushing, but was only 9 cm, so we kept asking her to relax, breath, and don't push, so her cervix wouldn't swell. It seemed really difficult in the bed, but as soon as she was back in the rocking chair, she relaxed some.  After another hour went by, she suddenly was pushing again, this time very seriously, and she told us she had to go to the bathroom. I asked her to wait until she was checked, because I didn’t want the baby born in the toilet! Once she got to the bed and the doctor told her she was complete, she started pushing and her baby girl was out within 15 minutes!
 While Consuelo was in the bathroom and Rodrigo was calling the relatives, I got to hold the sweet little bundle…. Mmmmm…..
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