The Birth of Jack

Some stories speak for themselves. And while I’m certainly one to shower you with poetic storytelling, I’m letting the images speak for themselves this time. But first— a little background.

Sarah was anticipating a VBAC. Sarah was not anticipating her water to break at 34 weeks, just before the start of a pandemic. But nevertheless, Sarah was having a baby two months too soon, just before the world turned upside down.

Sarah went to OSF and received medication to help her baby’s lungs develop. She spent the first day in labor in bed rest, hoping against hope that her son would wait. Wait he did. So much so that when the 24 hour period we waited for lung development had passed, we struggled to get labor going. If you’ve had a vaginal labor after a caesarean, you may know most providers will not augment your labor with medication. So we waited. And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Four days after her water broke and after several discussions of if proceeding to a c-section was the right decision, Sarah began to labor in earnest. She went from 4 to complete in a matter of two hours and quickly began to push. Jack was born with the help of a student, alongside Dr. Ma with minimal intervention. 34 weeks, four days of laboring off and on, a little bit of help and a whole lot of hope.

Jack spent about three weeks in the NICU adjusting to life a little early. It’s most strange to me in a post-covid world to see the number of healthcare workers un-masked. Please remember when this birth was documented in January of 2020, this was how we did things. With uncovered smiles.