At 12:29am on April 26, my patient's husband called me and told me to come quickly; she was about to deliver and they had just remembered to call me! I got ready and left home in record time. Tay dropped me off at the hospital and I raced to my locker to grab my white coat, then hurried to labor & delivery (after having to ask several maintenance workers where it was, since I have spent little time in the actual hospital thus far). I walked into the room as the midwife was encouraging Lisa to push. The contraction subsided, but on the very next one, at 1:01am, she gave birth to her son, Tanner.
The birth was the most amazing thing I have ever seen, and was rendered even more incredible by the fact that I thought I knew what to expect and was still utterly awestruck. The last scene in the movie "The Miracle of Life" has been burned in my mind since I witnessed it, horrified, in 8th-grade health class. But in real life, childbirth is beautiful and magical. As I watched Lisa's husband huddle over her and the new little being who laid on her chest, naked and still attached to her via umbilical cord, I struggled to cement a huge grin on my face in order to keep back my tears.
I watched the cutting of the cord, the delivery of the placenta, and the drops of silver nitrate being placed in little Tanner's eyes. Then, less than a half hour after he had entered this world, his father handed him to me! I am so touched that these folks were kind enough to not only let me accompany them on prenatal visits and welcome me at the birth, but to then hand me their new child, take pictures of me holding him, and send them to me!
The chief of ob-gyn at Stony Brook told me the other day that he has never forgotten his first birth. I can't even begin to count how many times I have already replayed this most sacred of scenes in my mind, as I'm sure I will for years to come.
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