Miracle of life

So today was the most amazing clinical ever. I saw a baby come into the world, a la this lady's vagina. And it was the most amazing thing ever.

I have been freaked out by babies, I have sworn that I will never be pregnant because your body does weird things when it is, and I have sworn never to allow a little alien to pop from my vagina. However, I think those things changed today.

I was just hanging at the nurses station, and a nurse came out of room 2 with the news that the mom would allow one more student into the room. I volunteered myself, and off I went. I went into the room, and the first thing I noticed was that everyone was staring at her vagina. Her mom, mom-in-law, husband, nurse, baby care nurse, other student, and me. Then my professor came in, and then the midwife came in. So thats NINE people in the room. Nine sets of eyes staring at her hooey, waiting for something to come out.

Then she starts pushing. And all of a sudden, sweet mother, is that hair? Oh my god it is, that's a baby's head. When she stops pushing, it sucks itself back in. Strange. But she keeps pushing during every contraction, and then all of a sudden a large portion of baby-head-full-of-hair is out. Next contraction, holy cow it's a head. Her vagina just sprouted a head. "How the F is this normal?" is my first thought. So they suction, and unwrap the cord, and she pushes again...and is now the proud mother of a baby boy. All of these semi-grossed out thoughts I've been having are suddenly replaced by "that's a baby." And it was amazing. Eight seconds ago, there were ten people in the room. Now, there are eleven. Awesome.

While I still believe things like the placenta are too gross for me to ever consider being pregnant, as are perineal lacerations and baby goo squirting from unmentionable places, I think this whole birth thing is pretty cool. I thanked her and her husband for allowing me into the room, and I now have a whole new point of view on pregnancy and motherhood. Don't get me wrong, I'm still weirded out by some parts of it...but birth is pretty cool. And for me, that's saying a lot.


edit: After reading this, I realize how funny the word "vagina" is. There are a lot of funny words in this world, but that one's up there.