Our sweet little boy decided he was ready to come and meet us 8 weeks early. My husband and I had it all planned out - we were going to a birth center to have our first baby and we should be expecting them after 40 weeks since it was baby number 1. Not at all what happened. My water broke at 32 weeks and we were admitted at shift change. Beth immediately took note of how stressed I was and did every single thing in her power to make the situation as good as it could be. She hung lights up in the room to make it more mid-wifey - I was so deep in labor I couldn't even appreciate them until afterwards but the thought was so precious. She advocated for me when things got loud and scary, made sure I understood everything that was happening, the whole while keeping track of how our little bean was doing. She kept it light when she could, but was serious when she needed me to understand what was happening. She kept communication open with me and my husband so we both knew what was going on - all the while taking into account that I was deep in unmedicated labor and had trouble responding to her appropriately. Beth made sure to collaborate with the midwife, our doula, and the physicians during each step of the process. Our baby was born as healthy as he could have been. Even as early as he was, he cried when he entered the world and was placed right on my chest for skin to skin - and I believe that happened because Beth was there to make sure everything went the way it should and respected our birth plan as much as the situation allowed. She was an integral part of our sweet baby's birth, and we could not have done it without her.