Really Cool Delivery

I had a lot of positive feedback from my last post on “my birth plan.” A few months ago I had a delivery that really made an impression on me and I wrote it down, so that I could remember the details. It illustrates the style, I wish was more prevalent in obstetrics today. This is the birth story, as I wrote it down.

“I had a really neat delivery this AM for a super sweet couple. It was the mom’s 3rd baby and she was laboring on her side. (I have delivered all of her babies.) When it came time to push, I left her on her side as she was quite comfortable in this position. Baby was occiput posterior, so it took some work for her to push it out. Dad was sitting on a chair next to the bed on the side mom was facing doing very encouraging, support person stuff. I was sitting on the bed, behind the mother. There were no interfering drapes or sheets. Because of mom’s position, as the baby was coming into view, the father was as close to her perineum as I was, so he got to see his child’s birth in detail, rather than peaking from up above. The really cool thing was that since the baby was OP, as it was born, it had its eyes wide open and was looking right at his father, so his father was the first person he saw instead of me. Then this baby took a big breath and began audibly crying while the head was still the only part delivered, which added another unusual twist to the delivery.

It felt so right to me, because with me behind mom and dad being so close and involved, I felt like I was not even integral to this delivery, It was just something, very personal, that this family was doing together. Then the icing on the cake was that instantaneous eye to eye contact between father and son as the head emerged. I so wish I had it on video.”

When one feels all of the pressures with this kind of job, it is this kind of experience that reminds one as to why you keep doing it.