Leaving town in the middle of night, I witnessed three deer prancing in a circle over and over, leading each other in a dance, in the middle of a street intersection. I was mesmerized and wondered what all the fun was about. I thought, “what mysteries does this birth hold”.
Most of my midwifery lessons are accompanied by an animal sign that I became aware of during my apprenticeship; the sighting of deer in unusual circumstances or behaviors. I have come to trust its presence. Down the road, crawling through the fog, I think about my own babies, now having babies of there own, and text them my love. Then my thoughts turn to this family and I long to arrive faster then the fog will allow.
Entering the home I greet this, special to my heart, mama. We have shared many journey’s together and are familiar and deeply comfortable with each other.
Later as birth unfolds, I see the three deer manifest in three, less common, variations of the beauty normal; sweet baby’s hand is caressing the opposite cheek; a healthy and strong special flesh hood that longs to hold baby close longer, even as baby is trying in everyway to move around this; a placenta that deeply loves its place in the womb. Baby and placenta find release and mom, dad and baby are beaming from their nest as we shared our goodbyes this afternoon.
Slipping in to my own nest now.