Worst funeral

When a friend carried her baby girl to the casket and placed her inside. 1993: A fellow English teacher went into labor with a healthy baby girl. Unfortunately, there was a cord accident, and the child was born dead. I will never forget the image of my friend, walking to the smallest casket I have ever seen, and placing her firstborn inside. Worst funeral EVER.

I mention this incident because the same thing happened to me, in 2002. I had had an epidural, and was hooked up to every monitor and machine available at the hospital. Suddenly, a nurse came in and said, quite calmly, but urgently, “Hey, hon, we've got a little cord problem here. We have to do a C-section, and right now.” Before I could react, a surgeon was in the room, my belly was cut open (no pain: epidural, remember?) and my baby boy, who celebrates his nineteenth birthday in five days, was lying on my stomach.

Bottom line: I LOVE modern medicine. Had my friend been pregnant a few years later, her beloved daughter might be alive today. I recognize the trend for “home birth” aided by a midwife: I’ve had two family members go this route, and two beautiful children are the result. But I don’t approve. It was literally seconds that saved my son, so I just can’t approve.

So, my advice, for what its worth: Have your baby in a hospital. let them hook you up to every device known to man. Forget natural childbirth. Go for the SAFEST childbirth.