Ciska's life as a Midwife
1) What is your name?
A:My name is Ciska van Straten.
2) What is your job?
A: I am an independent midwife. I mostly do house births, but I also do births in private hospitals. I do not work for anyone- I work for myself.
3) How many patients do you usually see in a month?
A: I see between 8-12 patients a month that I actually assist with a birth. And, I monitor around 100 pregnant patients a month.
4) What is your schedule like?
A: Really busy! I'm on call all hours of the day, 7 days a week. I only get a few days a year off. It's really tiring because I don't have a "schedule", so I don't ever know when I am going to get a full nights sleep or not.
5) Do you have any interesting stories?
A: Of course! Over my many years as a midwife I have had lots and lots of interesting moments. There was this one day, where two women had the same due dates- I didn't think much of it because only 5% of births happen on the actual due date, so I wasn't worried about these births overlapping. When the day arrived, I got a call that one of the women was in labour and I rushed over and delivered the baby. While I was delivering her baby, I got a another call that the other woman was in labour! I was shocked, and I had to quickly finish delivering the first baby, and during the peak of morning traffic, rush from Mowbray to Observatory and deliver the other one! After I had finished this ordeal, I found out that not only did these two women give birth on the same day, but, they also knew each other!
I have another interesting story. After I assist with a birth, I generally check up on the family to see if the baby is okay and how the parents are coping, because the first few weeks after birth are always the most dangerous and complicated. So, I delivered this woman's baby and afterwards she seemed very normal- she was very well spoken, smart, and well dressed. After I delivered the baby and checked on them the first time, I realized the woman had gone mad. She thought that her husband was Satan, and that she had made a pact with God. She even made a bonfire in her backyard, and burned all the toys as a “sacrifice.” Thankfully, as the weeks went by, she slowly got better, but one day she just stopped talking completely. I heard learned later on that this has happened before.