The Ordinary Doula Podcast
Welcome to The Ordinary Doula Podcast with Angie Rosier, hosted by Birth Learning. We help folks prepare for labor and birth with expertise coming from 20 years of experience in a busy doula practice, helping thousands of people prepare for labor, providing essential knowledge and tools for positive and empowering birth experiences.
The Ordinary Doula Podcast
E66: Funny and Unexpected Birth Moments
This episode is a celebration of the unexpected humor found in childbirth, featuring a compilation of funny outtakes from Angie's experiences as a doula. Through laughter and story-sharing, we explore the unpredictable nature of labor and the connections formed during such profound moments.
• The power of instinct and a surprising fast delivery
• Funny moment of laboring in a car
• Challenges of memory and multitasking during labor
• Comedic physical challenges faced while supporting mothers
• A surprise VBAC delivery with minimal support
• Hilarious postpartum blooper about being trapped in a bathroom
• A wild hair appointment delivery story that proves anything can happen in birth
• Emphasizing the value of humor in the doula experience and childbirth
• Connections and community formed through shared birth experiences
Visit our website, here: https://birthlearning.com/
Follow us on Facebook at Birth Learning
Follow us on Instagram at @birthlearning
Show Credits
Host: Angie Rosier
Music: Michael Hicks
Photographer: Toni Walker
Episode Artwork: Nick Greenwood
Producer: Gillian Rosier Frampton
Voiceover: Ryan Parker
Welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast with Angie Rozier, hosted by Birth Learning, where we help prepare folks for labor and birth with expertise coming from 20 years of experience in a busy doula practice Helping thousands of people prepare for labor, providing essential knowledge and tools for positive and empowering birth experiences.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the Ordinary Doula podcast. My name is Angie Rozier and I am your host. This is an episode that I've been thinking about for a long time and kind of how to do it, and it's just kind of a compilation of bloopers, like little outtakes, that that I've experienced over my career and I guess when you do anything for a long time, funny stuff is going to happen, outrageous stuff is going to happen, surprising things are going to happen, and especially in childbirth, like that's. A lot of times it is surprising and interesting and the longer I do this the more I realize like anything can happen. Anything is possible.
Speaker 2:So in, for instance, today, I had a delivery this morning early the day. I went in at like 3.30am, baby was born just before 6.30am and I saw something I think I've never seen before. I'll have to think back on it, but this was pretty wild. Nobody was ready for this. But this baby was a first time mom having, you know, her first baby and we can usually expect one to three hours of pushing with that right After we get complete to 10 centimeters dilated. This mom was goal was to go unmedicated. She was doing it, she was rocking it, doing amazing. And she had been checked and was nine plus right. So she was nine, like nine and a half centimeters, had a little anterior lip and the baby was at a zero station. We had a little ways to descend. Um, she was checked a little while later. She was kind of pushy, nothing crazy, but, you know, felt a little bit of pushy here and there. She was checked again 20 minutes later, still nine plus.
Speaker 2:Um, baby at a zero station, and the midwife or sorry, the nurse and I stepped off to the side to kind of review our birth plan, where it was dark. We were talking in the dark and kind of whispering about that when all of a sudden the mom just let out this what I call a birth roar and she's like something's coming, the baby's here, the baby's coming. And I mean we've heard that before. You know, like if you've done this a few times, you hear that you're like okay, maybe the baby came from a zero to a plus one. She felt some descent, she thinks the baby's coming. Um, we gotta still push, you know, first baby, we're still gonna be pushing for a while. Nope, she was absolutely right, this baby was coming and we went over. She did have a peanut ball and that I'm sure helped facilitate this. Um, move the peanutball and there was the baby's head.
Speaker 2:This mom didn't really ever even push, she roared and that brought the baby from a zero station to out, um, so less than five minutes after she was checked. So the nurse, you know, is I mean there's no gloves on the carts ready, but it's not pulled up, it's not open, the there's no doctors in the room. There was meconium, so we needed NICU present and because it was dark, the nurse was like pushing buttons and turned out. She accidentally called code blue and man, we had 30 people rushing into that room and that baby was born super fast. So all was well in the end. It was a very exhilarating fast delivery and much sooner than anticipated, because that baby descended from a zero to completely out in less than five minutes.
Speaker 2:Pretty wild when usually we're going to push Elisa a little bit, but I think that's the shortest second stage pushing I think I've ever seen on a primate. Pretty remarkable. So that's just one of hundreds of examples of how things can go. But I want to share some kind of interesting or funny or odd stories with you today. Um, as I've gone over these in my mind. I'm sure there are so many like.
Speaker 2:Birth is remarkable, um and, and there's some fun stuff that happens along the way, some wild stuff, some surprising things. So here's some of the outtakes let's see. All right, so one client I had, I helped her a few times with a few of her babies. She's very a good birther. She has had home birth, hospital birth this particular birth maybe it was her third baby, I think and went to their house. They were laboring at home and it was evident we need to get going to the hospital.
Speaker 2:So we got in the car and this particular time I don't always do this, but I will in a pinch I just felt like I needed to get in the car with them, which that leaves me high and dry at the hospital. Right, we had about a 10 minute drive to the hospital, but I just felt like I needed to be in the car with them, which I know some doulas will never do that, but I've done that on occasion. So I'm in the car with them. The mom is doing her own little birth roars. We're getting pretty dang close to having a baby, so it was tricky, like the dad's driving as fast as he can.
Speaker 2:It was dark, it was nighttime, there wasn't bad traffic, which was helpful, but every time a contraction came we'd hear that birth roar and the mom was obviously pushing and um. So we'd like the dad and I, as we were communicating as best we could while he was driving and it was dark like all right, let's pull over. I think we're having a baby, so we would pull over and I'd be around. All right, here's how are we going to do this? What are we going to do? You know, just jump into action that would subside and she's decision to. So we would like go, go, go, go to the hospital, get there. We pulled over three times, anticipating this baby to be born, three times on the way to the hospital. We made it. We made it to the hospital. She got into the ER. We drove right up to it. We got in and we had a midwife came down from labor and delivery, met us in the ER and we had a baby there pretty quickly, pretty awesome.
Speaker 2:Another one I was with a couple headed to the ER and this baby. It was imminent. I was in their car as well. It sounds like I drive in cars a lot with people. I really don't. But, um, I was with them and, as you know, we we rushed to the hospital. I think I'd called ahead. People came out of the ER to meet us and as this mom was stepping out of the car like what an awesome way to move the pelvis and help that baby to be born so right there at the ER this is a busy hospital People were going in, coming out. It was like shift change in the morning, so it was pretty busy and this mom with one foot in the car, one foot out, the attendants from the ER, um, caught a baby right there, which was kind of wild. And I, I, I these aren't the only bloopers, right, like there's so many precipitous birth bloopers if we're going that direction.
Speaker 2:There's one time we had a client and you know, sometimes you just don't get paid enough for what you're putting through as a doula. Sometimes the fee just can't cover what's asked of you. But this particular client was laboring beautifully, unmedicated, she knew just what she wanted and she asked for it a little on the demanding side, you could say and she liked to be on her hands and knees. She didn't want to move from that. She was on the bed. The bed was, uh, you know, the top of the bed was up and she was kneeling draped over the bed. Um, she was a pretty vocal person and she asked us she didn't want to get up to use the bathroom. She had to poop legit poop, not this wasn't like hey, I got to push a baby's head out, but she had to poop and she asked us to just catch it in her hands. Like she's like you didn't know, I'm not leaving and you can't leave too. Like just just catch it. Like I'm going to go and here it comes, you catch it. Um, I did not catch poop, but my partner and I had had that fun client, which was kind of interesting.
Speaker 2:There was a couple times this has happened. I hate to admit how many times this has happened, but for several years there's two hospitals that I would go to very frequently that were very close to each other, and so a lot of the providers would go to both hospitals, right, so they had patients at either hospital, and this was pre-smartphone days and so, like now in my phone, you know, I bring up my client's information. It tells me all kinds of stuff about them, like their hospital, their partner, their due date, all the stuff I need to know I can see at a glance. But this is pre-days Like I was, you know, going off memory and paper notes. So more times than I'd like to admit, in the middle of the night I would arrive at a hospital, one of these two. Um, with a provider I worked with frequently who went to one of these two hospitals, I'd say, hey, I'm here for so-and-so, and they're like I'm sorry we don't have a patient by that name. Like, ah, snap, like dang it. Okay, next hospital there down the down the street two minutes. So hop in my car, go there. And sure enough, that's where they were. Um, couple bloopers that way. Uh, one time I was.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you get in funky physical positions as you are, as you are providing physical support to the laboring person. Sometimes it's they're very meticulous on what they want and they they won't deviate from what they want because that's that's how they're coping right, like they're just hanging on by a thread and maybe you are that thread, or your shoulders or your whatever right. And I've had one particular client years ago Luckily I was young and strong and I was wearing great shoes at that day but she hung around my neck for two hours like hung while she was pushing. Her husband was too tall and so I just planted my feet right there on the ground and that's where she was for pushing for most all of her pushing phase.
Speaker 2:Another client this was a home birth and she was giving birth on a like on a floor, a bed on the floor, and it turned out like the. Where we ended up. That was working best for her is that I was kind of kneeling and she was leaning back on me and then her partner was right next to her the midwife is there as well, working and so she was pushing her at the very end of a long labor, like 24 hours of labor or something and I was kneeling and she was laying back on me and it's pretty wild efforts when you're pushing, and especially she was doing it for like an hour and a half or so, and so I thought I had lost my legs, kneeling this way for an hour and a half with somebody on me, like in my lap, and I looked at my legs. I could see I had legs. I didn't know if they would work. I don't know if they would unbend from that position after that amount of time, couldn't feel them, they were super tingly and almost disappeared. But you know what? I still got two legs, um, and they function pretty darn good. So that was kind of wild.
Speaker 2:Um, another one I was with a client. She was having a VBAC after two C-sections and this was very important to her, as it is to many I mean, everyone's birth is important to them, right? But she wanted a VBAC. She carefully chose a provider who was going to support it. She wanted to go unmedicated, which she was doing, and she labored beautifully, got to 10 centimeters, pushed for one hour, two hours, pushed in all the positions, and her supportive care provider, who was, I, enjoyed and trusted, said you know what? Your baby has not budged after two hours of pushing. I don't, I don't think this is going to work and I'm sorry about that, but I think we're going to have to plan for a cesarean delivery again. Um, and she cried and she was sad.
Speaker 2:Um and the team went to get the OR ready and she was on her hands and knees, unmedicated and had to just keep pushing right, like she couldn't just turn it off. So she was pushing, pushing. It was just her husband and I in the room at this point and the team was getting the OR ready and they were gone for a while, like a remarkable 25 minutes. They were gone and she had to just keep pushing and after about 20 minutes I was like, oh my gosh, that looks different, like something's changed. I can see the descent right, you could absolutely see the scent. I'm like, wow, oh, oh, I think this is going to work. Like I think I think this baby's coming.
Speaker 2:So I asked the dad. I didn't want to start hollering. I mean we were the only three people in the room soon to be four people and the staff hadn't come in for going on 25 minutes now. So I asked the dad to push the nurse button. Right, I'm like, push that call button, I think this baby's coming. And so he was nervous and fumbling around and couldn't find the button. I mean it was bright red and he couldn't find it. Finally he finds it, he pushes it.
Speaker 2:In the meantime this baby's head is coming, like baby heads coming out. I'm like, all right, well, I'm here, I'm the only one here, let's, let's do this, I guess. And so she was. There's a towel there. I didn't even have gloves on, I just kind of picked up the towel and held the baby's head in the towel.
Speaker 2:Babies did a nice rotation. The shoulders are coming out beautifully and about the belly button mark. A nurse came in the room'm like hey, this baby's coming. She starts yelling, hollers for the team to come in. They all come in and you know what? This baby's head was square Like I'd never seen a baby's head shaped like this. But it was very square as it made its way through the pelvis. Um, and this mom got her V back. She was very happy with how it went. Um, but the blooper was that I was in the room another time.
Speaker 2:Uh, I was with a client. They were doing a birth center birth and they had already had a baby before. I was also with them for that one. Um, and they. They arrived at the birth center and this this particular midwife, who's so amazing. She did home birth deliveries and birth center delivery. So she was coming back from a home birth delivery on her way to the birth center but wasn't quite there yet. So we were let into the birth center with a very non-skilled person, her husband, who said all right, there, there you go. That's all. That's all I got. So it was again the three of us, me, soon to be four of us mom, dad. It was her second baby. Things were going fast. She started pushing, um, I'm like, oh gosh, here we go again. Um, so started easing this baby out when and I'm like just at the right time the head was more than crowning and we would just have I had baby chin. When the midwife walked in, I'm like, all right, good, you're here, do your job. Um, which was kind of nice.
Speaker 2:Uh, let's see, some of my bloopers honestly come from exhaustion in my effort to articulate words. At the end of a long birth, these nurses, like I, get slightly envious of nurses who get to go home after 12 hours or they have an end to their shift, right, and I work with partners and backups, so that's, you know, much easier. But still you might start a shift with no sleep, right, like you might go to a birth at 9 pm. It's not like you were sleeping all day in preparation for this birth. So sometimes at the end of you know, at the end of a birth or shift, or if my partner comes in, like my words are a little fuzzy because I'm pretty exhausted. So I have to really concentrate sometimes and, um, use the right words as I talk to the staff, who's pretty fresh Sometimes they're fresher than I am at that point because they they have shifts and they come and come and go. Um, here's a funny postpartum blooper. Um, so I've I've done a lot of postpartum work for people in their homes daytime, nighttime, and this particular one, um, the my clients.
Speaker 2:The husband was a. He worked for an NBA team. He was a trainer for an NBA team and it was the playoff season, for this NBA team was in the playoffs. It was June or something. I was there for their birth and she wanted some nighttime help when her husband was off at the playoffs. Right, she had a newborn.
Speaker 2:So I was doing some nighttime doula work for her and she went to bed and I was taking care of the baby and the baby and I were in the living room and I was, you know, I'd sleep and rest there as I could and stuff, um, and the baby was getting close to waking up. I knew the baby's. I think I was giving a bottle when this baby woke up this time I can't remember, but but, um, the baby's getting close to waking up. So I thought, oh, I better, if I'm gonna go to the bathroom for myself, I better do it now, before this baby wakes up and needs to eat. And so I went to the bathroom, just down the hall and around the corner close to the mom's bedroom, and I did not take my phone with me. I just went and I was just gonna use the bathroom real quick, wash my hands and get to feeding this baby.
Speaker 2:And once I got into the bathroom, the doorknob broke like the doorknob just broke off. Um, I'm like, oh, like this is a problem. Um, I didn't have a phone with me, no way to connect with anyone. Um, I think it might've been winter time. There is a very small window in the bathroom. It did cross my mind if I should try to get out the window. And in the meantime the baby starts crying. Right, I knew he was waking up soon and being ready to eat, and so I'm like oh snap, what do I do? I'm like trapped in this bathroom with no way to communicate, unless I start knocking or hollering and waking up the mom, whose bedroom is kind of close by. I just didn't know what to do. Like I am in a predicament here. The baby started crying and nobody was attending to it right, that's poor form for a postpartum doula. So it got the mom's attention. Thank goodness she wasn't wearing earplugs and having a sound machine. Maybe she did, I don't know, but she, it got her attention and so I was kind of knocking on the bathroom door by then Like hey, uh, I'm. I mean, the doorknob on the other side worked just fine, I just didn't have access to it. So I'm like I am so sorry, but I'm like trapped in the bathroom. The door broke and anyway, we had a good little chuckle about that. She opened the door and I, she went back to bed and I went and took care of that poor baby who was crying.
Speaker 2:Um, another kind of funny uh blooper. This happened years ago for me. I was, I had a client, they had a baby, everything was awesome, super cool people. Um, delivered, went well, we're, you know we're. We're now sitting with holding baby in arms, baby's getting ready to latch, and I was kind of helping with the first latch and, um, just instinctively, the mom like on her nipple was a hair right and so I'm like, oh, let's move that out of the way. But you know, I went to move it and it was attached. I'm like, oh, so sorry, sorry about that. Um, we had a good little chuckle about that. Um, okay, another blooper that I. It was kind of crazy.
Speaker 2:This was a couple years ago and I had a client first time client in early labor just like contractions 12 minutes apart. We were keeping in contact on the phone Um, not thinking much of it, but I'm like, all right, she's an early labor, cool. I had a hair appointment that day, I think at 10, we'd been in contact since. Like seven contractions are far apart. They were short, and I had to decide am I going to keep my hair appointment, am I not? My hair appointment was about 20 minutes from my client. I'm like, yeah, I think I can keep it. It's going to be like a two hour hair appointment. I'll be done by noon. That should be fine, um, and I'll have my phone with me, of course.
Speaker 2:So I went to my hair appointment. I don't get my hair colored often, but I decided to. Just, I had a wild hair. I'm like I'm going to get my hair colored today. That was what I had the appointment for. So my hairdresser is a good friend, she's awesome, she knows what I do for a living and stuff we she likes to chat about. I think people think it's interesting, um, as you chat with hairdressers, right? So I was texting this client, I got my hair all colored. I got you know, whatever like they. They put all the color in. I sat under the the little dryer. I was texting her again, still nothing crazy about her labor. Um, and the hairdresser went to wash my hair. She took all the foils out and was going to wash my hair.
Speaker 2:So my head's in the sink right when the dad calls me and I've been texting him moments before and he's like uh, I think she's pushing, and these people had they're traveling to a birth center which was about an hour away from their house. Um, and we all knew that. Right, we're like all right, let's, you know, let's get on the road. Part of the plan is to get on the road at a good time, but it hadn't gotten to that good time yet as far as contractions and the pattern went and stuff. He's like I think she's pushing and I I didn't believe him. I'm like well, you know, maybe she feels the urge to push. Uh, and remember, like, even if it's, you know, even if it is, she is 10 centimeters, which I really doubted because contractions have been pretty spaced out. Um, we still have, you know, an hour, two or three of pushing so you could get on the road and get to the birth center. And he's like, no, no, no, I think she's pushing and I could hear her in the background. Um, so, while my head is in the sink, um, this mom, legit, is like delivering her baby.
Speaker 2:So I talked the dad through what to do and I said, all right, like the mom is standing at the kitchen sink, I had a little picture of my mind where they were. I'd been to their house. I'm like all right, here's what you're going to do. I want you to be ready to catch a baby this way. They're going to be slippery, it's going to be warm.
Speaker 2:I heard the baby be born and my heart, just like I, took a huge sigh of relief as that baby gave a really great cry. I couldn't see what was going on. I was just hearing it and my hairdressers washing my hair out, and so I said, all right, let's sit her down on the floor. You know, let's like, you know, talking them through some things about the placenta and the cord and keeping that baby skin to skin, covering them up, like seeing the color of the baby. You know, just like kind of talking them through that stuff. Um, and my hairdresser is very well aware of what's going on and she's like you gotta go, I gotta go. Um, so she took a clip and I had wet hair it was colored, not cut and she just took this clip and just pulled my hair up, put a towel around my neck and I dashed out the door, right.
Speaker 2:So I and I did not do my makeup that day. I am a person who does my makeup every single morning. I just wake up and I do it like I brushed my teeth, right, but that day, for whatever reason, I did not. So I went to these people and I gave them the option full disclosure. I'm like all right, here's what you could do. You could call 911. You could go to the nearest hospital, which is much closer than your birth center. You could head to the birth center. You can wait for me to get there. What do you want to do?
Speaker 2:They chose to wait for me to get there, which I was nervous about, you know, but I could hear the baby's crying, you know, and we were doing our best to keep time of things on the phone. So my hair appointment, remember, was at 10. It was going to go to about 12. This baby was born at 1202. And so I just, you know dashed to my car, went to them, went with them to the birth center, which was an hour away.
Speaker 2:We put together their remarkable timeline and I went to the birth center with awesome midwives who I know this is a North Carolina and one of my my favorite places to go into work. But I looked pretty wild that day, like no makeup, uh, weird hair in a clip was dripping, wet, colored Like. So anyway, next visit with my hairdresser I took back her clip and her towel and told her that baby was doing fine. But that was kind of kind of a wild one. Um, and those things happen, like it's funny that things happen in little batches. But just a couple weeks later had another dad with a home. They're planning a home birth and no one could get there in time, so he had two phones. Midwife was on one phone, I was on one phone. We talked that dad through a delivery at home. Everything worked out beautifully and thank goodness that you know it worked out fine and that's the interesting thing. Like when things go fine with birth and delivery, like those babies don't need a whole lot of help being born. You know, sometimes the moms need more help than the babies do, but so glad we have skilled attendants and a medical community who works hard to take good care medical care, emotional care, physical care of people having babies.
Speaker 2:So anyway, some odd little stories there bloopers, outtakes, just fun things that have happened. I'm sure there's more. I could pull up through my memory banks over the years, but hopefully you have some good stories too. I love that. Every birth is a story, um, some are heartbreaking stories, some are hilarious stories, some are most of them are incredibly empowering and triumphant. Stories are all a hero's tale, every single one, and no matter how they go. And then sometimes we do pretty funny things. So anyway, that's it for my bloopers. Hopefully you have some fun bloopers from your life or your career. Um, got to laugh in life Like I love to have a good laugh about things. Keep it real. So thanks so much for being here with me today hearing some fun little stories. I hope that you have a good day. I hope you have something. You can go out and make a difference in someone else's life. Reach out and make a human connection with someone you know or someone you don't, we will see you next time. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Ordinary Doula Podcast with Angie Rozier, hosted by Birth Learning. Episode credits will be in the show notes Tune in next time as we continue to explore the many aspects of giving birth. Thank you.