Mature women gallery
" "We both made a big mistake," I heard myself saying, "But I don't see any way out of mature women gallery now. If I had my way..." "Don't say mature women gallery, Charlie! Please, just don't say it!" Before we knew mature women gallery Cathy was in labor. I had attended all the prenatal classes with her, had even watched some videos of actual births. My intention was to be with her the whole time, including the delivery. In 1965 that sort of thing was unheard of, as was "natural birth"... childbirth without drugs. We might have been well advised to wait for the second child before trying this, because Cathy had a very long labor - over 24 hours! But she managed, with Kelly in the waiting room and me in the labor room. My job was to do whatever I could to keep her comfortable, time the contractions and report to the nurses whenever they dropped in. At first the nurses barely tolerated me, their attitude being that fathers belonged in the waiting room where they wouldn't get in the way when they panicked, went mushy, fainted, whatever; but as the time went on they realized that I had been well prepared by our doctor, could actually be a resource for them, and they used that resource to all our benefit. Stephanie was born at about 6:30 in the morning. I watched completely mesmerized as the little body emerged, emitted a soft cry, then went silent. The doctor handed her to a nurse who put drops in her eyes, then handed her to me. ME! Not her mom, ME! I was so shocked I almost fainted, but then I couldn't do that, could I? Not with this little miracle in my arms. |