Color

I think the color may have finally returned to my cheeks.

Remember, it takes a bit to shake me. After all, I’m the youngest child, I was in a college marching band, I used to sell Viagra, I’m a sailor, and I’m halfway through my 3rd year of medical school. So, if I hadn’t seen it all, I figured I’ve seen enough so very little could shock me anymore. What happened to me on Monday?

I helped deliver a baby.

Not the kind that comes screaming out of the mum in the operating room (which still scares me, by the way), but a 100%-normal-no-drugs-delivery, from where God meant them to come from. Yes, ladies and gentleman, I can finally tell you the answer to that age-old question: Where do babies come from?

It ain’t pretty.

It’s kinda unusual for a student to be involved, not because of the mum-to-be being modest or anything (From what I understand, you could have a video crew in the room with a live play-by-play by Keith Jackson, and she wouldn’t know or care. But I digress.), but the L&D ward here is staffed by midwives, and they give priority to midwife students. It’s not unusual for a med student to go through all 8 weeks of O&G, including a 24-hour shift, and see *nothing*. But I was lucky.

The expectant mother (along with her mother) said it was OK if I assisted. This initially meant I was to stand out of the way, not say much and fetch ice chips as needed. As the day wore on, I picked up more and more duties: I was allowed to get extra towels, and they even let me fix coffee for the midwife after a while (white, 2 sugars). At one point, they had me doing that whole La Maze breathing to help out – you know, short-sharp breaths during the contractions.

Not quite sure what it was supposed to do for *her*, but I was rather light-headed by the end.

As things progressed (meaning, she was screaming louder and I was getting more light-headed) I was relived of my coaching duties and moved down to the end of the bed, where I watched the bub (Australian for baby) make his grand entrance into the world. Now, I have seen Columbus after beating Michigan, and San Diego after winning a Super Bowl, but that is *nothing* like the carnage I saw after what we’ll call a ‘normal delivery’. I won’t go into details, but the room was a mess and I have never seen so many stitches needed to close a wound in my life…

My reaction to all this was noted by the new grandmother. When she was on the phone with some relatives relaying the joyous news, and I overheard her say, “Mum and baby are doing fine, and so am I. But I’m a bit worried about Bryan, the med student – he looks a bit pale.”

I realized I was slumped in the corner hyperventilating into a paper bag…

And with that, it’s the weekend. I’ll attend a birthday party tonight, and spend the rest of the weekend deep in the books. I mean, now that I know where babies come from, I need to figure out how they get there in the first place…

As always, Love to All and keep working on your 101 List!
Bryan