Babies

Today I witnessed a miracle. It was beautiful. It was awe inspiring. Today, for the first time in real life, I saw a baby born. 

Today was my first day of clinical. It started off rather sobering, but ended up so well. I was able to "help" a mother with the delivery of her brand new baby. I saw the labor from just before she started pushing until she and her baby were taken down to the Mother/Baby unit. It was very different than I had expected, despite having to watch videos of a birth many times beforehand. 

Pushing took so much longer than I realized, even though I've heard about grueling long deliveries. It was tiring (and I wasn't even doing the work!). I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that little head, covered in hair, starting to emerge. I kept thinking to myself, "how in the world is that a baby?!"It took a while for the rest of the body to follow, and there were a few concerns about possible complications, but everything went smoothly in the end. In the last few minutes, as that Mother was pushing so hard, and as the baby's shoulders, arms, torso, and legs suddenly came through, I couldn't believe that a brand new person had just entered the world. And I watched that tough Mamma and that tired Daddy beam as they were able to hold this new member of their family. 

Some people would describe that labor very differently. It was quite bloody, slightly gross if you think about it, very painful, stressful, long, tedious, and, occasionally, disheartening. But seeing that brand new human being, that child of Heavenly Father, makes it seem like it would all be worth it (I can't say it does, I've never experienced it ;). Throughout the day, as I heard sad stories about babies who didn't live, or miraculous stories about babies who lived when not expected to, I thought a lot about this quote:

“When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn’t stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother’s heart, and she puts it into the baby’s mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies” (quoted in The Treasure Chest, edited by Charles L. Wallis [1965], 53).

I learned a lot of new things today (a LOT) and I thought about a lot of things. But I think the greatest thing that happened today was a reminder of how beautiful, and fragile, life is. 

Elder Neil L Andersen, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave a beautiful talk last general conference entitled Children. I was reminded of that talk today. Here is one of the quotes that I love from his talk:

"It is a crowning privilege of a husband and wife who are able to bear children to provide mortal bodies for these spirit children of God. We believe in families, and we believe in children.

"We express deep gratitude for the enormous faith shown by husbands and wives (especially our wives) in their willingness to have children. When to have a child and how many children to have are private decisions to be made between a husband and wife and the Lord. These are sacred decisions—decisions that should be made with sincere prayer and acted on with great faith.

"Let us humbly and prayerfully seek to understand and accept God’s commandments, reverently listening for the voice of His Holy Spirit.

Families are central to God’s eternal plan. I testify of the great blessing of children and of the happiness they will bring us in this life and in the eternities" (Elder Neil L Anderson, Children, November Ensign, 2011).  


I saw just a little bit of that happiness in the hospital today.  And I was reminded again of how much I want to have children. It was a hard thing when I thought that day would come so much sooner and then it didn't. I don't think it will come for a long time. But I'm so glad I get to experience a little bit of that happiness through others' experiences. 

And I'm no so much more motivated to study, which is always a wonderfully needed thing. Yay for clinicals! 

p.s. Here is a beautiful talk by President Hinckley as well: Behold Your Little Ones