My friend had her baby at home today, and I was downstairs helping to care for her children. I happened to be at the bottom of the stairs at just the right moment - I heard her groaning and pushing, and then a baby crying! It was awesome. It hadn’t occurred to me, but hearing a baby’s first cry is rather a rare thing for folks other than medical professionals.
I haven’t gotten to see him yet - I was leaving with my toddler so she could take a nap. But it was pretty freaking cool to have been there when he came into the world - can’t wait to meet him!
(My 2.5 year old, hearing my friend’s muffled screaming/groaning/etc. kept saying, “The kitty’s upstairs calling for help!” :D)
Well yeah, I said rare, not unheard of. My count was two, and I’m done having kids, so unless/until my daughters invite me into their birthing rooms, that would be pretty much it for me, if not for today’s experience.
I suppose quiverfull people and hardcore Catholics are a different story.
The little Torqueling was born by planned C-section (my wife has a condition that makes her prone to bone fractures, so with a natural birth she would probably have broken her pelvis), and what I remember the most from being in the delivery OR were two sounds.
Sound the first: they jumped right into the delivery so quickly they almost forgot to get me and my wife’s mother (she’s been a nurse for 30 years and has been at all her grandkids’ births). When they brought us in, she had already thrown up once, from fear or nausea or both. I could hear the sound of her heartbeat on the monitor, racing away. I took my position right by her head, and talked to her, and got her to focus on me instead of the other craziness in the room. And I heard her heartbeat slowing down, because I was there.
Sound the second: at last, the wee one came free, and gave her first cry. I’ve posted before about our long road to having a kid; it hadn’t been an easy journey, going against the odds in every way imaginable, and I swear, some part of my wife still didn’t believe it was really happening. But after that first cry, my wife took in her breath in a gasp of the purest joy I’ve ever heard. She really had a baby, and she was real, and she was really hers.
I happened to witness a C-section from the doctor’s side of the drape during a clinical rotation at the hospital when I was getting my EMT certification. It was awesome. The little girl was pulled out purple, took a gasp or three, and started hollering like I’ve never heard before. Then she turned red, and finally pink, and didn’t stop screaming for about 20 minutes. There wasn’t any real point in doing an APGAR grade on her, because she had it pegged just by looking at her. All eyes, ears, and appendages were at the right counts and proper locations, too.
I had to take vitals and do a clinical assessment on a kid less than 15 minutes old. To this day, I hate having to work on a kid younger than about a 3rd grader, but I know I can do it.
I’d give my eye teeth to deliver a healthy, full-term baby to a healthy mother. Where I run, back of the ambulance deliveries tend to have neither.
Thanks to my daughter’s umbilical cord prolapse when I didn’t have an epidural in, I was under general anesthesia when she was born, and my husband was not allowed in the OR.
She had an APGAR of 2 when she was born, but after a few puffs of oxygen, she started to cry. One of the OR staff opened the door so my husband, who was waiting outside, could hear her. To say he’s grateful for that gesture would be a massive understatement.
That first cry is so reassuring. My second son didn’t make a sound until about 30 seconds after he was born. Everyone assured me he was fine, but I remember saying, over and over again, “Is he ok? Why isn’t he crying?” I’m not sure the nurse didn’t finally pinch him to get him started, so that I would calm down.
I don’t think he’s ever again been silent for as long as 30 seconds.
I don’t remember either of my girls crying right at birth - just them lying on my belly and looking right into my eyes!
I know I’m really done having kids and it’s the right decision, because I enjoy reminiscing about my birth experiences, listening in on someone else’s, and holding other people’s newborns, but I still NEVER want to go through it all again myself!
A friend of mine says that he was sleeping when he was born (I didn’t know that was possible!), I’m sure it must have freaked his parents out at the time!
My biggest memory of my wife’s delivery was “ewwwwwww . . .”
It was 5 days before the due date when they thought the Mrs. had bronchitis so they decided to start labor with . . . uhh . . . some drug, and she went from 0 to contractions every 2 minute in half an hour. Part way through the IV for the epidural came out but the nurse didn’t believe her so it was an hour before they put it back in. It all worked out though. The first thing I did was count eyes, fingers, toes, ears etc. It was a pretty good day. (The only way it could have been better was if our football team had won, but I get hit if I mention that within earshot).
Neither of mine cried either, just looked around. My midwife rubbed my son’s back after a few minutes to GET him to cry (to make sure he was breathing ok…he was). And my daughter gave one squawk as she was helped out by the midwife and that was it.
I think a lot depends on the birth environment and situation itself…is the lighting blindingly bright? Is it cold? Is the baby handled roughly/moved suddenly? Are there strong odors? Is it loud? Uncomplicated or emergency delivery? etc… Plenty of babies born at home or in otherwise dimly lit, quiet, comfortably warm rooms and handled gently who don’t come out crying or cry afterwards. The transition from the dimly lit, warm, soft environment of the womb to the outside world can be either a shocking jolt or a relatively smooth adjustment.
Me, I’m done too. But I COULD go through it all again, and sometimes get a bit broody around babies (that’s when I slap myself and remind myself that not only are my eggs past their sell-by date, but I no more want/need a baby any more than I do a pony. :D)
You’re absolutely right. And this is (one reason) why I’m not entirely looking forward to my nursing rotation in OB starting next week. We HAVE to make them cry to get an accurate APGAR number. Seriously. No cry loses 2 points, one in breathing and one in reflex irritability, even if they’re calmly looking around, taking in the world and breathing normally. So my being kind and gentle to your baby could take her from a healthy 8 to a 6, and that’s when people start bringing out the oxygen equipment and whisk her away from you and into the nursery for testing and observation.
If it’s any consolation, I had to check with Boy From Mars just now as to whether they made her cry. Apparently they did, but briefly, and I have absolutely no recollection of it, and I would hazard a guess, she doesn’t either. Both of us were returned to our dimly lit, drug free haze immediately after and she started nursing, and I was amazed, and we were all blissful. So don’t worry!
I was not in the room when my sister had her first baby, but my father and I were just outside. Sis had a LONG labor, and we hadn’t heard anything from my brother-in-law for a while, so Dad and I figured it was getting down to the nitty-gritty.
We snuck down the hall in the hospital and listened at the door. I thought I heard a little gasp, then there was crying that sounds just like the “newborn baby in the movies” sound. Wonderful, but what was even better were the eyes my dad turned to me. This was his first grandchild, and it looked like 200-watt bulbs were shining in his head. “Did you hear that? Did you hear that?” he asked me
