The Endless Chronicles of Stupid, Childbirth Edition

[naturallyselected]

13. I re-lived my first son's birth

When I read your piece, I was there all over again: decreased fetal heartbeat, emergency C-section. Because it was an emergency, and not planned, I couldn't be in the operating room, and wore a path in the hospital hallway floor, waiting for the pediatrician to emerge from the operating room with our son. Time stood still, but our son was OK, and I got to hold him while the OB nurse cleaned him up and put on his hospital nightgown and knit cap.

Our younger son, and our daughter were natural births, and I was there for both. When our son was born, it was during a hospital baby boom, and I got to sit with him in a rocking chair in the nursery for better than an hour until the nurses could get to him. Our daughter was born in the midst of a violent thunder and lightning storm; her obstetrician, a female ex-Navy doctor, was a few months away from retirement and had presided over more than 5000 births..

I cannot imagine not being there for our children and my wife. To hear this precious privilege belittled makes me sad and angry. The "family values" party shows their true colors once again. To them it's more important to be a good little worker than to do the right thing by your wife and children.

Their thoughts and words are offensive, but I can't help but think about what this mindset deprives these fools from experiencing. I was honored, humbled, and overwhelmed to be part of our children's first few days. I am so grateful no one tried to take that opportunity away from me.