Nora finds her vocation

A greater sense of purpose

In the late afternoon, the husband asked Mimi, a midwife, to come to his house quickly – his wife was in labour and ready to deliver. “Good timing,” I said, “let’s go.” Mimi collected her bag of supplies, and we started out. The rocky road up to the house was steep, the sun was beating down, and we stopped briefly to catch our breath.

Nora was on her way down, covered with a day’s worth of construction grime and carrying a shovel. At nineteen, she was our youngest international volunteer, working with the crew that was building dry toilets and tanks in several households. Even from a distance she looked dusty, like she had given her best effort that day. 

“Want to come with us and attend a home birth, Nora?” I asked, hardly expecting her to agree.  Nora thought about it for a split second. Acting on instinct and despite any fatigue, she agreed, “Yes, I do. This may be my only chance to see a live birth.” With both parents being physicians in Germany, Nora was already familiar with many aspects of medical care, and wasn’t nervous about going with us.

Stooping to enter the small stick house with a thatched roof, we saw that the mother was obviously in labour with her second pregnancy. She was lying on a palm mat with a blanket, a small pillow under her head, and her black rebozo draped over her body. Her husband waited just outside the door, while a sister hovered nearby, ready to comfort and fetch whatever might be needed. Moments later, a second midwife, Lucia, appeared – she came immediately after hearing that a birth was imminent. They began their assessment; everything looked fine. 

Realizing that I would have to leave soon, I asked, “Do you want to stay, Nora? It could be a long night.” Again, Nora didn’t hesitate, “Yes, I want to stay. But tell me, what can I do?” 

“Just be present,” I said, “Be present and accompany the mom; sit by her. Hold the flashlight steady when Mimi asks you to.” 

The next day back at the Atzin Centre, I asked Nora, “How did it go?” “Amazing, just amazing,” she answered, glowing with excitement, “The mom had a baby girl, with a good weight and a strong cry. I loved every minute. It was like witnessing a miracle – the miracle of birth.” 

After completing her seven-month commitment with Atzin, Nora returned home. Months later, she wrote to say that her experience with the home birth had shaped her future. In the weeks that followed her departure, reliving those few hours spent in a rural village with a woman delivering a new life on a mat in a modest home, Nora had decided: she would become a midwife. She enrolled in university, and four years later, graduated as a professional midwife. Twenty years on, she continues her work with women and their families as well as caring for her own four children. 

Nora found her vocation – her calling and her livelihood – in a single night. That doesn’t happen often. The word vocation comes from the Latin vocātiō, meaning a call or a summons to pursue a certain direction in life. An unexpected door of opportunity opened for Nora, and she said “yes” twice: first, when she agreed to attend the delivery despite being tired and hungry, and again, when she chose to stay and accompany the birth from dusk to dawn. 

Nora had no way of knowing that those two gut-level decisions would mark the beginning of her calling. Responding intuitively, she sparked the awakening of a greater sense of purpose and began to define her contribution to humanity. 

Who could ask for anything more? 

With best regards,

and the Atzin team