meat and taters

Last Friday, I wrote another A&P exam in the morning (which went smoothly) and then spent my lunch-hour writing a short book report on Janet Balaskas' Active Birth manifesto (which has been in print for a quarter-century now) for book club that afternoon. After class, I hitched a pleasant ride with J and her dog to Portland. On Saturday morning, I hit the Back Cove for a hard run (only 4 miles, but a chest-wheezingly fast 4 miles). In the afternoon, I saw Brunswick for the first time, and hung out at a cute coffee shop called The Little Dog. I enlisted the help of a friend who is an expert at seeking out good used-car deals, and she helped me dig through Uncle Henry's guide in search of a decent Subaru. We eventually pulled out the notebook PC and surfed Craigslist to broaden our search, and came up with a few good leads. I still haven't actually bought a car, but I am much wiser for having had that brief-but-thorough education on the perils and pitfalls of used-car buying in the United States.

Later that afternoon, I slipped an enormous batch of lasagne into the oven. I'd been scheming to cook something hearty for C and W's potluck dinner that evening. The six blocks to their place were traversed that evening with a dish of steaming lasagne in one hand and a large bottle of Californian organic shiraz in the other. My various student-midwife friends brought their 'bits of fluff' (C's word for 'boyfriends', which she employed when urging us to bring our menfolk along on her potluck invite), and we all had a cracking good time.

On Sunday, I was on the far outskirts of Brunswick, walking through a friend's vine-tangled orchard surrounded by woods. I was mesmerised by the golden-yellow splotches clinging to the trees in the dappled sunlight, and the crunch of drying Fall leaves and pine needles underfoot. I spent the afternoon in Litchfield with a friend's family. They have a simple life in the country with a menagerie of animals and a glistening vegetable garden. I was shown how to wield an axe properly and to split a few logs, and then fed the horses while a heart-achingly cute miniature goat called Easter looked on. We all feasted on Maine lobster, melted butter, wholegrain bread from the Black Crow Bakery down the lane, and Shipyard Pumpkin Ale.

On Monday, it was time for our Physical Assessment class to get started. We discussed breast exams and pelvic exams in the morning, then practised them on each other in the afternoon. I and my friend H paired up for the pelvic exam, which we conducted respectfully and sweetly on each other. That evening, she drove me back to Portland so I could spend Tuesday and Wednesday hanging out in the 'big city' and trying to get some studying done for our Normal Prenatal exam this morning (i.e. Thursday). H and C and I spent time together at C's place early on Tuesday morning, creating a womb-like space of womanliness in which we could continue to practise Pap smears and bimanual examinations of the uterus and ovaries on each other at our own pace, with plenty of feedback and also room for making 'mistakes' and then correcting them in partnership with each other. I came away from that morning's session feeling enormously better about my practical skills, and about my capacity to interact with women in a sensitive way as a midwife, while honouring their autonomy and their right to know things (and be curious about) their own bodies and what healthcare providers are doing to them. I was supposed to finish two assignments on Wednesday, which only got done during the lunch break today because I was too preoccupied with wondering around Portland, hanging out in its wonderful bookstores, eating a leisurely lunch at an organic café, talking to my darling friend N on the phone for an hour and a half in the afternoon (which was glorious, and ridiculously overdue), and surfing midwifery sites on the internet afterward. I got my best work done in the evening, when I earnestly stuck my nose in my books for an extended period before bedtime.

Today, we learnt the art of palpating a bellyful of baby (Leopold's Manoeuvres of abdominal palpation, for those who care to know), and measuring fundal height. In two weeks' time, we shall have real (yes, real!) bellies to feel and learn from.

Tomorrow heralds the start of Normal Labour and Birth, yet another juicy course on offer at Birthwise, with the irresistible promise -- to all those participating -- of challenging homework, accompanied by a rapidly growing practical-skills base, and a long-awaited chance to chew on the meat-and-potatoes of midwifery work. Not long now before I'm a-catching babies, y'all...