Tick Tock goes the clock

TIME.

There is so much focus on time when you enter a birth space.

+ time limits for actively pushing

+ counting to ten during pushing

+ time limits for birth if the waters break

+ time lines for births of multiples

+ time between contractions

What would happen if we took the concept of time out of birth?

Well, we would look to the person giving birth to see what was going on, wouldn't we?

I have watched the look of frustration wash over dear clients faces when they are told "we'll come back in a few hours to see if you have progressed." I have seen sadness come over them when they look at the clock and hours seemed to have passed and yet stayed still and they still haven't felt the urge to push. I have locked eyes with a client full of fear when doctors started yelling out the number of pop offs on a vacuum assisted birth. I have held the hands of clients whose anxiety grew when sceduled c-sections get pushed back longer and longer. You see, each one of these clients put their minds, bodies, and souls into bringing forth their babies. Each one did amazing things and reached new limits within themselves. But each one was struck with unnecessary uneasiness at some point with that damn clock looking down on them, and everyone else looking at it.

Next time, look at the person, not the clock. Time has a place, but not always in birth.