sometimes hu(wo)man beings leave me speechless...

I have always been fascinated with the uniqueness of people. I love that humans are all made physically of the same substance, but are so exceptionally different with their thoughts, interests, emotions, even their bodies. Especially since becoming a Labor and Delivery nurse, I have found this to be even more true than before. Each woman who delivers their baby at my hospital has a different plan on how they want to deliver their child, each woman experiences the pains of childbirth differently, each woman reacts differently to becoming a mother, each woman looks at the little miracle that their body has grown entitled "baby" for the first time differently. This is what makes my job exciting. And every once in a while, a delivery comes along that just leaves me speechless...truly, no words are able to explain the experience. This is one such story...

One day a woman came into our hospital to deliver her baby. She was not in labor, she was not in pain, she was not in any distress. Her baby had simply stayed inside of her body too long so she was going to be induced because of her post-dates pregnancy. The woman was oriented to her room, placed on the contraction and fetal heart monitors, and cuddled up in bed to wait for her body to start this journey called Labor. Her baby was very active and had a reassuring heart pattern, in other words, a healthy baby in utero. One of the normal parts of my job is readjusting the external monitors. Since babies do not stay still inside and mothers do not lay completely still outside, many times throughout the woman's stay in the hospital before the delivery,we must move the monitors around to get the baby's heartbeat. Well, this particular woman's baby had stayed on the monitor with no complications for the first 2 hours.

The woman also wanted an epidural before she was in much pain, which is also very common. The doctor placed the epidural and the woman's body gradually transformed into a tingling sensation from her bellybutton down to her toes. The woman tolerated the procedure well...there was nothing abnormal...so far.

About one hour later, as one of the nurses glanced at the monitors at the nurse's desk, she noticed that this particular woman's baby's heartbeat was not appearing on the monitor. As usual, she asked one of the patient techs to go to her room and adjust the monitor. The tech returned to the desk after being in the room for quite some time and relayed that she could not find the baby's heartbeat and felt some exagerrated, odd movements in the woman's abdomen when she tried to change the monitor's position and asked the mother if she felt ok and the mother replied with a quick, "Yeah, I'm fine." and returned to talking with her sister on the phone. The nurse then asked the doctor if she could place a fetal scalp electrode on the baby's head. This is a little cord that is placed on the baby in utero and monitors the baby's heartbeat continuously. Without thinking twice, the doctor said that was fine, as this is also a common practice in the hospital.

The nurse made her way down to the woman's room with her electrode in hand. She asked the woman if the epidural was working and the woman replied that it must be working because she felt no pain or any of the contractions. Side note: She was still talking on the phone with her sister...keep this in mind. So the nurse pulls the sheets and blankets back to place the electrode and lo and behold, a tiny gooey baby is lying in between the woman's legs blinking up at the nurse...not crying, not wiggling, but just breathing and staring up at the new world. Now it wasn't just the head of the baby out...the WHOLE BODY of the baby was laying there with its umbilical cord still attached to the mother source. Now this is quite a feat because sometimes babies need a little help from the doctor to turn their shoulders under the bone to get out. Not this baby, this baby was born by himself with no help from the doctor or his MOTHER for that matter. Needless to say, the nurse was a bit shocked and called for the doctor immediately. She waited for the doctor to get there before they told the mother that she had just delivered her baby and the woman took the news pretty well if you ask me...she nodded and continued to talk on the phone with her sister...uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...not quite the reaction I would want to receive if I was that baby boy entering the world for the first and only time. Thankfully, the baby was perfect with no physical problems at all.

Pardon me, if I told this story in a rather "matter of fact" manner with little emotion...I just wanted to get the facts out clearly and truthfully....without any bias as to the mental status of the mother......just another day in the life of a Labor and Delivery Nurse...