Writings: Obstetrics

Childbirth is a messy thing involving lots of blood, torn tissue, and other other bodily fluids. On top of that labor is painful. And yet, despite all the physical trauma, the mothers invariably respond to the sounds of their babies' first cries with the most tender expressions of bliss - they positively radiate with happiness. On my ob/gyn rotation I'm helping manage the action end of things, and a lot of action there is indeed. But once the baby is in Mom's arms, she seems to forget past and present pain as we work to get the placenta out. That's a good thing because the extraction of the placenta, with its alien, jellyfish like appearance, bleeds like the dickens, requiring a fair amount of massaging and maneuvering out of the woman.

When talking to the post-partum moms, I find myself unconsciously basking in the glow of their new motherhood. I like to hear the way they talk about their babies and how they miss them when the babies are away in the nursery. I start feeling so warm and fuzzy too that I forget that I'm here to get babies and placentas out in a professional manner, not to revel in the miracle of birth. I realized this when one of my patients curiously asked me in the middle of my perhaps overly-enthusiastic interview if I enjoyed working in the hospital and what time I got to work in the morning (it was 5am at the time). "I can tell you really like your job!" she said with a sleepy chuckle. 

If a natural childbirth is a messy thing, a Cesarean section can be downright gory. The patient is anesthetized and a curtain is erected between her and the doctors. Then the doctors begin their performance. My upper level resident, with her pretty, dark hair and green eyes all wrapped in sterile scrubs, transforms into a scalpel wielding spaceman. Where I see blood and guts, she sees planes of fascia, vessels, and muscle that guide her quick incisions. The expertness of her technique reminds me of ballet dancers pirouetting on point: confident and powerful on one hand, yet controlled and delicate on the other. I never thought I'd find art and beauty amidst the dissection of human innards, but I am often awe struck watching the surgeons perform their craft as if they were painting with knives on the moon.