Last night was a pretty eventful night. My wife went into labor with our third child. And I delivered it.
We had a home birth with our previous baby and were looking forward to doing this again in a relaxing setting (though we are also pre-checked at a hospital nearby). However, after only an hour of serious contractions, she was starting to push and it was clear the baby would be born in minutes. If this isn't a WR, it's at least my wife's PR.
The midwife was en route and I was both soothing and coaching my wife, fairly confident but still wanting to slow things down. It quickly appeared that the baby wasn't going to wait so as the head appeared I did the only thing I knew: Objective A: check for the cord around the neck.
The cord was wrapped around the neck. And the baby's face had quickly turned a deep shade of purple.
Just the head was out at this point. I told my wife to stop pushing while I tried to undo the cord but there wasn't enough slack, it wouldn't go over the top of the head. I could see the little eyes blinking and knew I needed to act quickly: the cord had to come over the head no matter what so one big pull...and blood all over me. The cord had snapped (note, this is not what I wanted to happen).
I saw what had happened, knew it was not the best thing, but knew it couldn't be undone. One thing I did know: the lifeline had been cut and the baby needed to rely on its own life-support systems. Which meant getting the baby out where it could breathe. NOW.
So I told my wife to push quickly and simultaneously pulled and the baby came free. Limp and unresponsive. A couple of quick smacks to the bottom and mouth-to-nose sucking to clear the baby's airways and she started crying (it was only after all this that I realized we had a girl). That's a wonderful sound.
The midwife arrived in a hurry shortly after and said the baby was fine and under the circumstances I did the right thing and was glad I had the presence of mind to think quickly and act on it.
The most important run of my life. AND I CLUTCHED IT!
Certainly a tense moment for dad here, but the little girl is doing really well. Joking aside, we are very thankful that God watched over us all. She had a little bruising on her face (blood supply cut off by the cord) but it's already cleared up a few hours later and she appears as healthy as a horse. Would I do it all again? Absolutely.
