Did You Know??

My very favorite midwife, is back from the night shift and working weekends again! The last time I arrived in the ward, she greeted me cheerfully, told me to put on gloves, and to please, "deliver that placenta." As I sought gloves, she quizzed me on the three signs I should look for to determine that the placenta is pulling away and ready to come out. After I finished, she reviewed some anatomy and drew some pictures for me in answer to the many questions I had. She is a good teacher and knows her stuff inside and out. Pun intended.

A couple of things I acquired during my recent three-month visit to the States (besides dark chocolate and new socks) were two hefty midwifery textbooks. I've been pouring over them for several months. The more I read, the more aware I am that I'm only scratching the surface of all that is/needs to be known about labour and delivery. I feel like I'm skipping along the top of a pond like a rock, picking up a little here, a little there. I'm so eager to be able to put my full attention on the subject and be formally taught. 

Something I have noticed over the last two years of work in the ward is my decreasing scruples about discussing the finer details of labour.

In mixed company. 
With any person, anywhere. 
My filter is broken. 

I'll talk labour in a house with a mouse, in a box with a fox... You get the idea. I cringe to think who I have embarrassed or grossed out. But folks, this stuff is incredible!! 

The human body is amazing and a clear testimony of creative design. Did you know that the placenta is "fed" by a pool of blood? Quite literally a pool, referred to as the Lake of Maternal Blood. (isn't that poetic) The placenta is implanted in the uterus by eating its way into the capillary bed of the uterine lining. Protein fibers hold it in place while the mama's exposed arteries pool blood underneath it. With each maternal heartbeat, tiny jets of blood shoot up and cover the fetal capillaries on the surface of the placenta, providing oxygen and nutrients from mother to baby and the elimination of waste from baby to mother. Wow! This special circulatory system is called an arterial-venous shunt; a shunt, as there is no direct capillary connection. Wow again! You can't deny that even the notion that this singular and spectacular system evolved by chance is a bit far-fetched. 

Another shadow of creative design is the increase of blood volume in the mother as her pregnancy progresses. The body, aware of a healthy pregnancy, begins to produce more blood to support the growing placenta. The mama's body will produce as much as 2 additional quarts! This increase in blood ensures that the fetal capillaries are being adequately covered across the placental surface as the placenta grows. Increased blood volume provides added nourishment for the baby, and it protects the mama against shock should she lose a lot of blood during delivery and after birth! As you can imagine, it is therefore extremely important for the entire placenta to come away after birth and even more so, for the uterus to contract back down. Without full placental expulsion and uterine contraction, the lining of the uterus is like one, gaping wound; bleeding with abandon. 

Call me crazy, but these things seem to have been designed to serve a particular purpose. Let's get real. If it really was "survival of the fittest", the majority all of us wouldn't stand a chance. I would be looking at you from behind glass in the Smithsonian, displayed between the Wooly Mammoth and the Flightless Dodo Bird. I'm so thankful to be the creation of, and under the watchful care of a big God.

I'll keep reading and learning and dipping deeper into the complexities of pregnancy and labour, marveling along the way. I'll pass on any juicy tidbits I feel are worth sharing. 

Because I share. 

Unfiltered, unabashedly, with a man in a van (which has actually happened), with a goat in a boat, with a sheep in a jeep...