Remembering the birth of our first child.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2 : 7

Giving birth is like travelling in a foreign country with a sat nav on. Sometimes the turns either come up too fast or there are road blocks or strange deviations or a whole combination of these. At one point of the journey I said audibly : ” Mum please come and take over. ” She was far away in Africa. I think I even moved to get off the bed the pain was so great. Then all I wanted to do was push ahead when the road ahead was not ready and open. Slowly, very slowly my body allowed for the safe passage of our child with me well enough to take him in my arms and know he was ours. This was my first journey through childbirth .

Roy’s colleagues at work predicted that my contractions would start with the World Cup on 11th July 1982. This they did! Pachlan Purdy (our Springer Spaniel) was my shadow. I would take comfort on my knees and she would sit a respectful distance from me, when I walked she walked too. She showed concern when I moaned. Roy saw Italy win the world cup and then at about midnight we went to the hospital together. It was a warm summer’s night and our baby was born at 9:33 am. Roy was with me all the time.

I felt I was the only woman who had achieved something so great even though the ward was full of women, some even rather accomplished and on their third or fourth. Funny that feeling BUT in some ways it is true. My son was the one and only him. An individual made by Roy’s and my genes and a living soul carrying the breath of the Creator from eternity.

Here are two very different quotes about birth. One from an obstetrician and another from a humorist.

Birth may be a moment , but it is a unique one. Fredrick Leboyer 1918- 2017 ( French obstetrician and author)

Giving birth is little more than a set of muscular contractions granting passage of a child. Then the mother is born. Erma Bombeck 1927-1996 (American humorist.)

I then found out wether she had any children. It is quite sad . Erma gave birth to a son who suffers from polysistic kidney disease the same disease she died from. Then there is happy news her son is doing well after having a kidney transplant and marrying the lady who gave him her kidney.

Thank you for reading this ‘unique to only me’ 🤣memory.

Sandy 🙂