Baby Catching

No wonder they call birth a miracle.

The week’s just started and I’ve spent most of the first two days being exhausted from being in the maternity ward. Scratch that. Labour ward.

Specifically for delivering babies.

I have always realized that childbirth is difficult and have always respected women for it, but I never really understood the true difficulty of it.

Contractions, which happen anywhere from six to seventy two hours, which increase in intensity and pain throughout that time course. My heart goes out to the woman, who has barely had anything to eat or drink, has barely had any sleep and yet has to do exercise the equivalent of running a marathon with weights, and sometimes she’s doing everything she can, and the babe is still reluctant to come out.

There’s so much I want to tell, and so little I can do about it.

How can you put an experience like this into words?

The technicalities involved were something I had to become intimate with quickly, and after two days, words like dilation and multis, prims and VEs all have become second nature.

Yet, every birth is different. A different process, a different pain, a different character. Even the most stoic struggle through the process. As an observer, it is almost frightening, but it’s almost like a thriller, where you’re kept at the edge of your seat.

What comes next?

The process is so slow that anything could happen.

There’s something so inherently painful watching the head push through the blood and muscle, slowly coming through, something so painful about watching the tearing of the flesh as she pushes with the last of her strength.

Yet, when the baby is born, when it takes its first cry, when the blood and mucus is wiped off it, when you hold it in your arms… something inside feels warm and fuzzy, and you cannot help but smile at this tiny creature that’s survived being pushed through a birth canal

When it opens its eyes at you, and it’s almost always seemingly curious, always questioning, as if to say, “Where am I and where is this strange place?”

It’s such an emotional rollercoaster, all the way, and I feel privileged to be part of so many.

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