03/13/2026
One foggy night I was in desperate need of an assistant for a first babe that was being born. I called Anneliese out of the blue and asked if she could help. She had been on a sabbatical from her previous midwifery apprenticeship and had just gotten off a hospital shift, but she still got in her car and drove as quickly as one safely can when you can barely see two feet ahead on cloud-covered, winding roads. She didn’t make that birth; that baby flew into the world minutes after my arrival. But that call reignited a spark✨the midwife✨within her. Before long, she found herself in the student role again, this time with myself as her preceptor.
Since then, there have been countless prenatal and postpartum visits, hours upon hours of charting, driving, learning the ins and outs of lab work, scheduling, ordering and reading ultrasounds, and navigating mountains of NARM paperwork. There have been so many beautiful births and some difficult ones too. Hemorrhages, suturing, breech babes, waterbirths, EMS transports, shoulder dystocias, newborn exams, newborn screenings… skills on skills on skills.
You share late night snacks and laugh when you’re delirious from exhaustion. You get frustrated with the lack of sleep, but you also take care of each other through it. You remind each other to hydrate. You sleep in strange places, set alarms for heart tones every 30 minutes, and slap the other person awake when it’s their turn. You sneak outside together to p*e under the stars, call each other on the drive home to stay awake, talk about holding in farts (iykyk), drink a lot of coffee, and celebrate together often.
Somewhere in all of the chaos, exhaustion, and joy, a really special friendship forms. It’s a rare kind of bond, the kind that only comes from walking through birth together, over and over again.
All of that was a very long-winded way of saying that I couldn’t be more proud to announce that our girl has officially caught her LAST PHASE THREE BABY!!!✨ Send her your love, congratulations, and best wishes.. 🤍👏🏻🥳
Next step: NARM exam!
