and it's "Katy, bar the door!"

Yep, amazonmidwife is 'off call' this week. "What does that mean?", you query. Well, it means that none of my clients are between 37 weeks gestation and birth. It doesn't happen very often (2-3x/yearly) since our practice doesn't rotate being on call. Once a client commits to me and one of my partners (we always work in pairs, and often have an apprentice along as well), we commit to her as well. Long before I was going to births, the older midwives tried rotating call shifts, but they found that they were saying to each other, "If so and so goes into labor, just call me...I don't want to miss her birth" so much, that there was really no point in a call rotation. I also wouldn't want it any other way; it'd be like running a marathon, then handing off the baton in sight of the finish line.

"Okay, but what's the big deal in being 'off-call'?" Well, for me it means the following:

*I can wear essential oils/perfume-y lotion etc. (Mamas in labor get scent-aversive very easily, and I don't always have time to shower before I have to head out the door.) I'm not big on make-up, but I love scents and not being able to wear them all the time sometimes feels like the biggest job-related sacrifice, which sounds silly, compared with what else midwives deal with all the time.

*I can drink a glass of wine or beer with or after dinner. ( Refraining from one glass isn't because I worry about being impaired or unable to drive; it related to the scent-aversion I mentioned above.) Mamas laboring naturally secrete endorphins and enkephalins that are 100x more potent than morphine; sometimes they want or need me really close to help coach them, esp. when I'm modeling blowing through their pushing urges if their perineum needs to stretch or I'm trying to resolve a cord around the baby's neck or suction. The last thing they need , IMLTHO, at that time is to smell my after-dinner wine.

* I can drink several glasses of alcohol, even split a couple of bottles with friends as I did yesterday when Alissa and her family came over to spend the afternoon. We had a wonderful time talking, laughing, knitting, eating split pea soup. And the kids played so well together---we didn't have to threaten to lock them in the basement at all; :tongue: they were outside building a fort with pine tree branches most of the time anyway. I imagine we would have had the same good time without the alcohol, but she brought some blackberry wine that we mixed with some cheap champagne (that doesn't give me headaches!) which tasted great. We also opened a bottle of my nephew-in-law's homebrewed white wine that he had made for his and my niece's wedding two years ago. He had fermented it in oak casks and it had aged beautifully; he has a gift. It was a great way to spend the day, and of course, impossible to do when on call.

*I can stay up late without worrying that I could be called 20 minutes after I finally go to bed. (Lots of mamas can only relax enough to go into labor when their kids are asleep.) And I can really sleep! when I do go to bed instead of my mind spinning weird (or precognitive) dreams all night.

*I can go to bed without mentally going over tomorrow's schedule and planning what would have to be cancelled, who would have to be called, whether the 'savant can work from home and take care of the kids if I get a call.

All this may sound like I'm complaining. I'm not. As Peggy Vincent said in Babycatcher (paraphasing) "who wouldn't want to be a midwife? We get to ask people intimate details about their lives, drink champagne at all hours, and catch delicious, wonderful babies!" But the time spent, at least mentally, 'in the green room waiting to go onstage' can get a bit wearisome. So when these lovely breaks come, I enjoy them, and I'm just that much more ready to be on call when it's time.