Primip Birth

A Primip is the term used for a woman having her first baby. It is technically incorrect, as a Primipara is someone who has given birth to one baby past viability. A Nullipara is one who has never given birth to a baby. But all midwives and doctors I know call a woman pregnant with her first baby a primip.

This lady hired FaeryLady fairly late in her pregnancy. She's a massage therapist. She was very aware of her body and what it was doing.

On Thursday (that's right, two days after the previous birth). FaeryLady called me at 1:30 pm to say that this mom was having some contractions. She said they had started the night before and had never really let up. No bloody show, but they were definitely continuing. I told her it was a good day, as all we had were guitar lessons for Atticus and my 11 year old, Tyra (because she's such a drama queen).

We went to lessons and while I was there, FaeryLady called again. She said the contractions were definitely getting stronger and she wanted me to be ready to come when she needed me. At 6 she called again and said that the contractions were now very strong but the parents were still telling her they didn't need her to come. She finally told them she needed to come and listen to the baby at least.

At 8:15 she called and said, "Come on!" I could hear a bit of urgency in her voice. I walked in their door at 9:55. FaeryLady called from the back. When I walked in the bedroom, she said, "I need you to get heart-tones, they've been bad." The mom was pushing laying on the bed. Heart-tones were in the 80s. No time for a transport, the baby was coming, and he needed to come now! We got the mom up in a full squat and the baby was born at 10:05. There was quite a bit of blood. FaeryLady said there was a lot of blood when the water broke right before I got there.

We were prepared for a resusitation with a warm surface, the bag and mask, etc. But he didn't need it. He came out pink and squalling. The mom needed some herbs to stop bleeding.

She tore. Pretty badly. We could see the bulbocavernosus muscle. I was glad to have just observed a hospital repair of muscle and talked FaeryLady through. I think it will heal fine. Perineums are very forgiving. This happened I'm sure because we didn't have time to control crowning. We had to get him out. The parents were both okay with it.

She was very happy overall with her experience, as was her husband. Their baby was sweet and nursed right away.

Now, I have one more that I'm helping another midwife with in the first week of February, then I'm DONE till I have my baby. Whew.