There are many rewards to being a midwife. I am able to work with a wide array of women - from teenagers to "advanced-maternal-age" moms. (I have never particularly liked that phrase, but even less now that I meet that criteria!) I am rewarded by seeing women learn about their bodies and their babies growing inside their womb. I love to share with women all the miraculous events that happen as their babies develop and grow. I am rewarded by laying my hands on an abdomen and feeling a baby move under my touch. Sometimes I am lost in the wonderment that there is really a baby inside that abdomen! I am rewarded by relationships that develop over the course of one or more pregnancies. To date, I have worked with two families with whom I have attended four of their children's births, and several with whom I have attended two or three births.
I am also rewarded by relationships with other midwives and practitioners. In my personal experience, I have been very supported by other midwives in my training and in my practice. I greatly enjoy teaching upcoming midwives and am rewarded by passing on the compassionate care of midwifery. Other birth professionals such as doulas, childbirth educators and lactation consultants contribute to the well being of the moms I serve and I cherish relationships with these women also.
However, the greatest reward I receive is being told by a woman that she was praying for me to attend her birth. In my practice, we primarily attend births only when we are on call. There are times when a woman may ask me to attend her birth and I try to accommodate that request if possible. As is human nature, there are women I feel a stronger connection with during prenatal care and I hope that I will be on call when their labor comes. I never impose and ask to attend their births because I don't feel like that is my role. They may feel more comfortable with another midwife or practitioner at their birth and I respect that. I trust that God will provide the attendant that the woman needs during her labor and birth journey. This is one reason why I feel that it is such a great reward when a woman shares with me that she prayed for me to be on call when her baby is born. To know that God is intervening and weaving our lives in such intricate ways amazes me to no end. I am humbled tremendously every time I come up face to face with this grace gift of God!
