To be a midwife is to hear stories. Women come to appointments and they tell me stories about creating their families or growing their families; they tell me their mothers’ stories and sisters’ stories. I love to hear them.

Yesterday I sat across from a young woman for our first appointment together. She told me about her plans, her unexpected but much wanted pregnancy. “I feel like I’m doing things out of order,” she told me. “But all I’ve ever wanted is to become a mother.” And then she looked me in the eyes and asked, “so what’s your story?”

My own story is similar to hers, and I tell her. “Being a mother truly is the best part of my life,” I share. “The second best part is watching other women become mothers. Those two things are the bulk of my life, so I feel like things are pretty perfect.”

It was an unexpected moment of kinship and complete gratitude realizing just how lucky I am. And then we listen to her baby’s heartbeat together for the first time, and before I know it we both have tears in our eyes. This sound is so familiar to me, and yet it touches me over and over again.

There is a Norwegian proverb that sums up my life perfectly. It says, “The greatest joy is to be a mother; the second greatest is to be a midwife.” There are no words I have ever found to be truer.