Midwife enjoys life of many births

Even as a child, Judi Davidson was drawn to the excitement and beauty of birth. She grew up on a mink farm and helped her father during the breeding season. And each April and May, she would spend nights in the barn, waiting for the horses to foal.

These days, Davidson is encouraging human mothers to learn from the birthing approach of these animals -- follow your instincts, don't be afraid, surrender yourself to the experience, this is a natural occurrence.

"I think my favorite moment is when I see a young woman … doing wonderfully, relaxing beautifully, and I think this is the culmination of everything we've been preparing her for," Davidson said. "I know she's going to be a powerful mom."

As the owner of Mat-Su Midwifery in Wasilla, Davidson aims to equip mothers and fathers with all the information and confidence they need to make the transition from expectant parents to a family. It's a transition she said some have come to think of as frightening and clinical, one that demands drugs, intervention, maybe even surgery.

But, at least for those pregnant women who are healthy and strong, Davidson says giving birth can be a very different experience.

When Davidson had the first of her four sons 27 years ago in a Texas hospital, she said she found herself lying on the hospital bed hour after hour, for 36 hours, thinking, "There has got to be a better way."

When she approached her own mother with questions about childbirth, the answer was inevitably, "Oh, honey. I don't know. Don't ask me." Like many women of her generation, Davidson's mother had been heavily

sedated during the birthing process.

"That is what she was taught," Davidson said. "It's just a different way of thinking."

Some women still believe in this approach to childbirth. When Davidson gives tours of the midwife center to potential clients, some quickly say, "No drugs? You're kidding. I'm out of here."

Davidson says she can't fault women who choose a different birthing path, but she strongly believes the

moment when a new life

enters the world and turns a couple into a family is a moment that can never be

recaptured.

"You don't want to miss it … you want to be present in the moment," she said.

Davidson's past 15 years have been filled with experiences most people only

witness a few times in their lives, if at all. During the

internship and training to

become a midwife, she was a part of around 100 births. And since then she has assisted in more than 1,000 at homes and at her birthing center.

She recently helped one woman deliver her seventh son while her other six boys clamored outside the bedroom door, wanting to know when they could come in and meet their new brother. The mothers she has assisted have ranged from 16-year-old girls to first-time 35-year-olds, and she has held in her arms firstborn babies as well as a family's 12th child.

In Homer one bitter winter she traveled by snowmachine, holding on to oxygen tanks and equipment, to a home where she helped a woman give birth to her third baby. During another winter delivery, a tree crashed to the ground outside the midwife center,

cutting the electricity and leaving the woman to give birth in the pitch dark.

It is far from a 9-to-5 job. Some days the midwives only catch a few hours of sleep between late-night deliveries and early morning clinic visits. They travel to women's homes and other women travel to the Wasilla midwife center from far-flung Bush villages. It is a busy, fulfilling life.

In her spare time, Davidson says, she goes on dates with her husband, picks blueberries in the mountains or kayaks, but she rarely strays far from home.

"I'm kind of tethered," she said with a laugh.

When she does go on an out-of-town vacation, she

admits she falls asleep before the plane takes off.

She may need the extra rest once in a while, but she doesn't plan to walk permanently away from her job, her life, as a midwife any time soon.

The "birth highs" are what make the days interesting -- the thrill of watching other people experience one of the most amazing, joyous moments of their lives. And when a week or so goes by without a baby arriving, she says she and other midwifes get a little bored.

In a way, the giving and receiving has gone both ways. While Davidson has helped women become mothers, the experiences and stories she has brought home enriched her own family and, she

believes, may have helped her sons become better men.

"They really got a bird's eye view of women and their struggles and their challenges," Davidson said.

She recalled coming home one afternoon and her

8-year-old son was on the phone with one of her clients. "And he said, 'My mom isn't here, but I know if she was she'd tell you to lay on your left side and breathe.'"

Her sons are grown now and this autumn two of them will be married. In a few years, Davidson may be helping her own grandchildren enter the world. And, like every other delivery in her long career, it will be a moment of tenderness, joy and surprises.

"To me, it's so exciting -- the unknown is exciting and should be embraced," Davidson said.