23 January 2019

Are some babies more valuable than others?

Of course not, right?

To some moms, though, there seems to be a difference. When a mother has had 8 pregnancies but no living children, that 9th baby is precious, compared to the 12th baby a mother delivers when she desperately wanted a tubal ligation after the last delivery, but her husband insisted on more children and wouldn't let her undergo the operation. Maybe some mom out there will argue that she loves her 12th baby just as much as she loved the first baby or would have loved an only child.

At midnight tonight I got to meet a much-longed-for baby.

*knocking*

Hmmm is that a knock or something falling on the roof?

*repeated knocking*

Nope, not a mango.

I climbed out from under my mosquito netting and walked toward the front door. I could see lights on the porch. A nurse and a nursing student stood at my door.

"Bonjour!"

They always say "bonjour" in the middle of the night. I feel like they should use some other greeting that acknowledges how middle-of-the-night it really is right now. The nurse held up a carnet, the little booklet containing the patient's health record, which goes with the patient and gets added to by various health centers and hospitals with each visit. She started giving me the patient's history. "This patient is here now and Dr. Sarah had offered her cesarean or induction of labor at 39 weeks because she has had 8 pregnancies and only one baby lived. All of the other babies died during pregnancy or delivery. She's 39 weeks now."

Hmmm, an elective induction at midnight? Sounds great.

"Her bag of water broke already."

Ok, so slightly more urgent, but, midnight urgent?

"The foot is out. There's a lot of fluid!"

Oh.

"Coming!"

I closed the door and threw on some scrubs, grabbed a light and my OR hat and mask, just in case.

I wondered as I walked toward maternity if the baby was still alive. If the baby was still alive would we still offer the cesarean then to avoid possible head entrapment? Could we get everyone here to open the OR in time if the baby was already in distress? So much for delivering by elective induction or cesarean to avoid such risky situations.

As I walked into the full labor and delivery unit, I heard a baby crying. The nurse was drying off a baby who was letting out a good, strong, healthy cry. The nurse smiled.

"Is this the one?"

"This is the one! She delivered! The foot was out, then the other foot came out, then the body and the head, and the baby delivered!"

So tonight we got to meet a very valued baby, worth an elective cesarean, but born by spontaneous breech delivery, leaving the mother unscarred for the next pregnancy. I congratulated the mother and went home to sleep.