Bradley and Leboyer

This morning I had a beautiful delivery with a great story to go along with it. Had a first time om come in in labor. She didn't look too uncomfortable, so we didnt figure she was too incredibly active. Doing the admission assessment, they told me they had been trying to get pregnant for more years and were told that they were infertile and wouldn't be able to get pregnant. They went through everything under the sun trying to get pregnant. So they were quite surprised when she got pregnant on her own after they had given up. They decided to use the Bradley method of birthing, which I honestly don't know that much about, but I love when patients use it. Its a technique where the mothers and her partner work together and the mom trusts her body, relaxes and tunes into her body, instead of using medication or distraction for the pain. The people who use it do extremely well and are in great control. And the dads play an active role in labor instead of being a bystander. We get so few here. The majority of people get epidurals (84%). She was in such good control. She turned out to be 8 cm. When she had a contraction, she would just completely relax and close her eyes. We did intermittant monitoring, only placed a saline lock, and she and her husband moved around and "danced" while she contracted. Baby came when he decided, which was before the doc could get there (and I actually thought I had called her in too early). But it was nice. We deferred all the stuff some people find necessary after a baby is born, mom did skin to skin and put her much wanted son to the breast right away. Then we did a Leboyer bath after they were ready. This is where instead of doing a sponge bath that the baby screams through, it involves submerging the baby into warm water and letting dad/mom support the baby's head and neck while the body floats free in the water. You can then wash them while the baby moves his/her legs and arms around. They stay warm and seem to really enjoy the water. The parents love it too. If I had to describe the perfect delivery, this would have been this birth. Wonderfully nice parents, healthy baby, fairly short labor and delivery without all the interventions. Maybe this will make up for the first elective primary c-section I have.