A Baby!!!!

On Saturday night, my friend Heidi Johnson asked me if I would be willing to go with her over to her friend's house to see if we could help get her labor started. She was two weeks over due and if she hadn't given birth by Tuesday morning, the doctors were either going to induce her or go straight for a C-section. Sunday day I was busy most of the day at the Moon Lodge Spa in Issaquah where I've been doing some consulting work. I told Heidi that I'd come by and get her when I got off work, and we could go over to her friend's house together.

As I was leaving the spa, my friend Montana Dutton asked me where I was going. I told her about the pregnant lady that needed to give birth before Tuesday or else. Montana is a newly certified acupuncturist, so she quickly taught me a few pressure points that I didn't know. I've done the "let's get this party started" routine before, but never as easily as this time. I don't think that the rest of this story would have happened as it did without Montana's last minute teaching.

When Heidi and I got to the momma's house, we sat down and talked to her for a bit about her situation, her stresses, her worries, her previous delivery experiences, and her hopes for this baby, and then we went to the living room to get down to the serious work. I felt momma's tummy and talked to baby. Then we turned off the lights, turned on some meditative music, pulled a chair and a pillow in from the kitchen, and I started work on massage.

I started with the pressure points on the foot, ankle and baby toe that Montana had showed me and within 15 minutes, baby had visibly dropped into place and engaged in the pelvis. I spent a couple more hours with momma praying with her, taking her through guided meditation, and working on both relaxation massage and specific pressure points to start labor.

When we left the house Sunday night, light contractions were coming regularly, and it was pretty certain that things would move forward smoothly from there. I gave momma my phone number and offered to come by the next day and/or come to the hospital if she wanted me to. The next morning, I called the Spa, told them I wouldn't be in, and then went over to take momma for a walk. I put her bags and the baby's bag into my trunk for later, and we were off.

Momma and I walked the 3 miles around Green Lake in Seattle with only two brief stops. By the time we were done with that, we were hungry, so we called Heidi, and the three of us went out to lunch. On our way to lunch, we stopped off at the Interurban Trail so that I could grab some raspberry leaves off a bush to make tea for the momma. (The story of why I knew there were raspberry leaves on the Interurban Trail is nothing short of proof that the Universe really is watching and giggling.) When we got to the restaurant, we stuck the freshly picked and washed leaves into a mug of hot water and let them steep while we ate.

As soon as Momma finished the first cup of raspberry leaf tea, her contractions got good and strong. I made her drink a second cup after she'd finished her lunch, but the first one was probably enough. A few minutes later, she went to the restroom and came out saying, "I got the bloody show!" We spent another half hour or so walking in the Northgate Mall before heading to the hospital.

The hospital was, well, a hospital, and I would have liked to have taken her home to Heidi's house instead and waited another couple of hours, but Heidi had an appointment at the hospital, too, so we had to go there anyway...

When the fresh-faced young resident on duty arrived, he asked the momma to introduce the people in the room.

She said, "This is Heidi, my girlfriend; and this is Lisha, my priestess."

The doctor did a confused double take and asked, "Is that something to do with birth?"

I smiled and answered, "No. It means I'm her minister."

"Oh." The poor young thing returned without comment to his computer monitor to type this new information. (As another friend of mine said when I recounted this story to him, "Welcome to the practice of medicine in Seattle!")

We spent four very uncomfortable hours in the OB Triage room before getting moved into a proper birth room. We were told that they just didn't have any rooms available yet. Shortly after momma threw up (in two trays, on me and on the floor), they decided that they did, in fact, have a birthing room available.

Just before moving momma, the doctor checked her and saw that she was at 5cm. About 15 minutes after arriving in the birthing room, contractions were right on top of each other, and momma had gotten to 9cm. 15 minutes more and I was watching baby Saffron's little head coming out into the world. That's a very, very fast 5cm to birth progression!

I am in awe of the whole situation, how a stranger turned into a friend and how I got a new "grandbaby". I am humbled by the fact that the Universe showed me the raspberry bushes needed for the tea. One bright red, delicious raspberry on an otherwise sleeping bush identified the plant while I was on a walk just days before I was called on to help this stranger out. And what a coincidence that my friend the acupuncturist was able to give me some last minute advice!

I pray that little Saffron's life will be filled with blessings, even as her birth blessed me so immensely.

From Saffron's Birth