Beauty in the rocky soil

I don't like posting without a picture, so I was looking through my pictures and came across this one, which I thought was perfect for what I wanted to share about today:


I attended my most difficult birth to date, last Thursday after my last blog post. It's a good thing God had helped me to work through my control issues and remember why I'm put in births... simply to support and to love my clients through the process, no matter what it looks like.

This one was a doozy. I won't share intimate details, even though you wouldn't know the couple I'm talking about. I will say that they faced MANY challenges throughout their labour process. If anything in a birth can possibly go wrong, basically it did in this case. From issues with the labour, to challenges with delivery and a VERY frightening recovery period; this birth had it all.

I'd been keeping in touch with the hospital all weekend to make sure mom and baby were okay. The nurses here in Clinton are incredible and a real JOY to work with! They treat me with respect and talk to me during deliveries. They give me details and include me in the labour process. I was even able to stay during a procedure that I'm normally not allowed to attend. It's one of the benefits of small-town hospitals. They give that personal touch. They have the time to put their hearts into one patient, and they do!!

I thought the picture above was so fitting. In a mass of weeds that is below my deck out back, I found these wild violets (I believe that's what they are) in the early spring. Last year my kids had yanked them out and I figured they wouldn't come back this year. Yet, despite the rocky, dry, rock-hard soil, these beautiful flowers managed to push through all of the rough stuff and shine. This is a picture to me of my client that delivered last week. She faced a lot of very difficult things in her labour. Challenges I wasn't sure she'd be able to push through. Even in the days following the birth there were issues that made her health fragile. Yet today, visiting with her, she is shining. Her attitude astounds me. Through all the challenges she's come through, the disappointments of things that didn't happen like she was hoping for, she is happy, she is thankful, she is a strong, beautiful mother! I am so proud of her! I love to see how birth changes a woman. How it empowers her because she realizes she has a strength that she didn't even know she possessed.

I'll never forget after I had Izzy, my life changed forever (and not just because I suddenly had another human to look after). I had more confidence, I was so proud of myself, I lost a lot of the insecurities that I'd had about myself growing up. You know, where you wonder how strong you really are and how much you can handle?

So this is a tribute to the brand new mom that I had the privilege of supporting. She is incredible.


Melanie