Delivery Rooms & Hopes
I love the delivery room. There´s a mom working very hard to see her baby, a dad that´s as proud as ever and everyone is there for just that little one coming into this world.
I made it a habit to ask parents if it´s their first baby, and what the gender of the baby is going to be. It´s not that I personally care whether it´s a boy or a girl, or that I don´t know how many times she´s been pregnant, because I do. It´s the connection you make with the parents in that moment. For a minute they don´t think about the hard work, or the desperation of already working so hard for hours on end. All they think about that second is their little one, and they light up. I love the look on the face on a father-to-be when he proudly proclaims he´s getting a little girl, or when a mom is so extremely proud of the little boy that hasn´t even been born yet. In that moment, they believe everything will be fine in the end. The labour pains will stop, the (maybe difficult) pregnancy will come to an end, and after all that time they will get to hold the child they have been working towards for such a long time. It´s a beautiful break in a beautiful process called birth.
Following that moment is always another contraction. And even though the mother has to physically give birth on her own, we push her while she pushes her baby. It´s a labour of love. From a proud father to his wife/girlfriend, from the healthcare professionals towards the mother, and from everyone towards the one little human we´re all waiting to see. And in the end, even though there´s amniotic fluid, blood and vernix everywhere, it´s always gorgeous to see a newborn on his mother´s chest, fathers proudly hovering over their loved ones. While I clean up, I glance over and smile: there has never been such a beautiful mess as birth.
I made it a habit to ask parents if it´s their first baby, and what the gender of the baby is going to be. It´s not that I personally care whether it´s a boy or a girl, or that I don´t know how many times she´s been pregnant, because I do. It´s the connection you make with the parents in that moment. For a minute they don´t think about the hard work, or the desperation of already working so hard for hours on end. All they think about that second is their little one, and they light up. I love the look on the face on a father-to-be when he proudly proclaims he´s getting a little girl, or when a mom is so extremely proud of the little boy that hasn´t even been born yet. In that moment, they believe everything will be fine in the end. The labour pains will stop, the (maybe difficult) pregnancy will come to an end, and after all that time they will get to hold the child they have been working towards for such a long time. It´s a beautiful break in a beautiful process called birth.
Following that moment is always another contraction. And even though the mother has to physically give birth on her own, we push her while she pushes her baby. It´s a labour of love. From a proud father to his wife/girlfriend, from the healthcare professionals towards the mother, and from everyone towards the one little human we´re all waiting to see. And in the end, even though there´s amniotic fluid, blood and vernix everywhere, it´s always gorgeous to see a newborn on his mother´s chest, fathers proudly hovering over their loved ones. While I clean up, I glance over and smile: there has never been such a beautiful mess as birth.
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