Calm under pressure
Back on Jan. 6, my wife and I were in her delivery room, surrounded by about a dozen medical professionals, who seemingly appeared out of thin air, ready to perform emergency surgery.
Sarah and I had gone into the hospital – Baystate Medical Center in Springfield – in the early morning hours for the birth of our son and fifth child. But after she received her epidural to manage the pain, the baby's heart rate had dropped. Sarah went from being attended by one nurse and an anesthesiologist to having multiple teams in the small room preparing to take various steps. Her OB/GYN – Dr. Kimberly Thompson – had Sarah sign a release approving an emergency C-section.
After a tense five minutes of everybody staring at the baby's heart rate monitor (I could have swore about 200 years had passed), he went back to normal. Sarah and I were left alone, attended by a single nurse who occasionally checked in. When the time for delivery came, Dr. Thompson arrived with a far smaller entourage, and the process went smoothly. (Note from Sarah: Smoothly does not mean easily).
Sawyer David Kane was born at 10:32 a.m. on Jan. 6, 2019. He's a beautiful baby boy who loves to eat, sleep and poop, and he hardly ever cries. Knock on wood.
Joy and chaos followed his birth: making sure Sawyer and Sarah were healthy and recovering, switching rooms in the hospital, checking on the four kids back at home, informing family and friends of our newest arrival. I barely had any time to reflect on the C-section drama, as it seemed like a minor blip in a remarkable day. But when we had a chance to talk about it later, Sarah said being asked to sign a form for emergency surgery was one of the scariest moments of her life. Looking back, if it hadn't been for Dr. Thompson's earnest but steady demeanor, Sarah and I might have descended into indecisive panic.
Sarah was later told Dr. Thompson had to perform two emergency C-sections that morning, meaning our brief scare became real for two other mothers, and for Dr. Thompson. It remains amazing to me how professionals like Dr. Thompson and the rest of the staff operate in an atmosphere like that. The labor and delivery department is inherently a happy place with a potential for high-risk drama. Of the dozen people who came into Sarah's delivery room during the panic, I only met four before or after. But regardless of whether I knew their names, I'm glad they were there.
- Brad Kane, editor
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