I am a midwife. Specifically, I am a private practice, planned homebirth attending midwife.
In my normal life, I am on call 24/7.
Every hour of every day, I am ready for someone’s call: a laboring
woman, a breastfeeding mom, a questioning teen, a worried dad. Every hour of every day, I am prepared to leave wherever I am and whatever I am doing to attend to a client’s need.
Every hour. Every day. 24 hours a day. Seven days a week.
Except now.
Now I am on a well planned, carefully timed, long awaited vacation. Such a break does not come easily or casually. It is planned months in advance, crafted around clients’s due dates and their annual exams. I have asked a midwife friend to ‘babysit’ my practice and clients (for a vacation yet to be planned) a year in advance.
Here are some of the things I look forward to on vacation:
Taking a walk without my constant companion -the cell phone.
Checking email only once or twice a day, knowing that a vacation notice went to anyone that left me a note.
Letting a call go to voice mail.
Drinking two (or maybe three) glasses of wine in an evening.
Planning a day trip based on where I want to go, not based on distance from my clients near their due dates.
Leaving my car, filled with various bags and midwifery supplies, in one country while I fly to another.
By going off call, I recreate myself. By going off call, I renew myself. By taking time for this vacation, I deepen the well that sustains my Self. When I return home, I will happily be on call every hour of every day of every month for the next year. As for today, I am going for a nice, long, relaxing walk, leaving my trusty cell phone temporarily unattended.
~Michelle
May all babies be born into loving hands