Emergency Childbirth

My sister was pregnant for the third time. She was concerned because the second baby came fast. Not wanting to be alone near term, she asked me to stay at her house while her husband was working. My two nephews & I played in the backyard. She announces she’s starting to get labor pains. She’s timing them, and they’re about 6-8 minutes apart. I call Frank on the cell phone, but no answer. I tell the kids to get ready to go to the hospital. They’ve been primed and know they might be there for a while, so they have school back packs with toys, coloring books, and of course their electronics & chargers. The two year old has an I-pad. While rounding up the kids, Nancy is getting excited. “Two minutes!” she screams. “We gotta go!” Kids have to get jackets on. Two year-old is wet. Four year-old wants to pee. Nancy screams, “BABY’S COMING!!” I run into the living room. She’s on the couch trying to get her clothes off. The pants are dripping wet from her water. I pull off the pants and underwear. She’s screaming and grunting. I turn to see the kids hugging each other, scared silly. Mom’s obviously in serious distress.

“Get me a phone,” I yell at the four year old. He runs and gets a portable phone. I dial 911. “My sister’s having a baby on the couch! Call the ambulance, please!!” The calm voice on the other end asks directions. I tell them she thinks baby is coming imminently. What am I supposed to do? She tells me things are going to be fine. Yeah sure. She stays on the line, and Nancy screams baby is coming. Now on speakerphone I set the phone down. Voice asks me to describe what’s going on. Sure enough, the head shows up. Following instructions I support the head as it oozes out, followed by the shoulders. The cord is in a funny position & operator tells me how to move it over out of the way. She says, “Now the baby is very slippery. Support baby with left hand, arm between two fingers, and head between thumb and first finger. Right hand behind the back.” (I remember very clearly her exact words.) Few seconds later rest of baby comes out, real fast. Operator was right; baby is slippery. I didn’t want to drop the baby on the floor! “Don’t spank the baby. Jiggle baby some.” Baby breathes and starts crying. I keep on holding baby against Nancy’s lower belly as the cord won’t reach any higher. She’s able to reach down and hold the baby girl. She has the biggest grin I’ve ever seen. She turns to see her other two boys, doubtless scared silly by what they’ve seen. She has them come over to see their baby sister. I took the opportunity to get a couple towels from the kitchen to wrap the baby. Not long after the sirens approached and paramedics roll in with the emergency baby stuff. By and by the placenta comes out. The took her to the hospital where everything was all right. I was surprised that her doctor let her go home the next morning. I got a new nickname, ‘Dr. Ted.’

Sounds awesome!!!!