August 2020

A friend who lives in our condominium returned from Kite surfing at Kalpitiya and told me: “I met a pregnant instructor and she would like to give birth in water, can I give her your phone number?” Of course, and I had another pregnant woman for my doula case loading!

That’s how it works; women talk within each other’s circle of friends and they get to know of me so word of mouth is the best; I don’t need business cards or a Facebook account.  This German mother and English father were a pleasant couple who I first saw over the internet from my bedroom at 28 weeks, and then we met at the hospital when she was 31 weeks pregnant.  A tiny, slim, extremely fit blonde woman who enjoyed her pregnancy, was still very much active and will be kitesurfing as long as she can.

The doctors ordered her to watch her sugar intake and diet as she was losing weight despite doing everything to make the pregnancy as low risk as possible to give herself a chance to give birth in water. She nicknamed her baby “A mini human”, and in her 37th week they moved to Colombo and rented an apartment for at least a month, settled down and waited for the baby.

They enjoyed life in the big city; many different restaurants, and cafes as there is nothing like that where they live. Her consultant and I all met for a 4 way conversation in my favorite café, the “London House of coffee” to discuss and plan her birth.  I had a feeling she will do well, but I never disclose these feelings to anyone beforehand.

Her water broke when she was 38 + 4 week, on Friday evening, just when her doctor was away for the weekend from Colombo.  She started to labour during the night (as predicted) and we met at the maternity hospital at 6.30am.  We contacted the doctor who was at the first waterbirth and he said that he would come to assist at this birth too, but that he had surgery at 9 o’clock in the morning. At 11.10am she decided to go to the pool and I was thinking of plan B. As the consultant was still at the operating room at midday in another hospital, we had to get another doctor on stand by and a pediatrician who would attend the birth.

The maternity hospital has its own doctors, but the consultant must be present at the birth (otherwise they will not get paid). Baby Skye was born in the water at 2:48pm weighing 2.6kg. The doctor arrived in time and he even recorded it on video – which gave him something to do as he is having great difficulties “doing nothing”; there is nothing to fix when all is going well. Everything was fine, just that the water in the pool was getting cold quickly so the mother had to get out 5 minutes after the birth to avoid the baby getting cold (hyperthermia).

Two days after the birth, before discharge from the maternity hospital, I went to see them and joined them for an “Afternoon Tea” – I could not miss that, could I? Before they returned home a month after birth, we saw each other again in our favorite café and I received a large 1kg Nutella from them, how sweet.  All was well and I was privileged to be part of yet another beautiful birth of a family. We are often in touch via What’s app and baby Skye has already been on the beach by the sea, though not yet kitesurfing with her father yet!

The only challenge they have is that the water in their house comes from a well full of algae and the filter is not doing its job so the water is not usable around the baby.  A joy of living in rural Sri Lanka.

Rennie