Babies don\u2019t follow a nine-to-five schedule, so how could obstetricians? I was asleep when the phone woke me in the early hours of a Sunday morning in December back in the 1980s. \u201cYou\u2019re on call,\u201d my wife said, shoving me toward the phone.<\/p>\n
I was so sleepy it took a few seconds to understand what the person on the line was telling me. A midwife, at the Evergreen Motel. With her was an Amish couple from a community about three hours away. The woman was in labor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI work with Doctor Whitman,\u201d she explained. \u201cI tried to call him, but there was no answer. The service connected me to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Whitman and I covered each other\u2019s patients whenever needed, but I wasn\u2019t familiar with midwives or the Amish community. \u201cDr. Whitman\u2019s out of town doing some Christmas shopping,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m attending a mother in the last stages of labor,\u201d she explained. \u201cEverything was going well, but then I lost the baby\u2019s heart tones. I can\u2019t pick them up with my stethoscope. I need Dr. Whitman\u2019s Doppler to make sure everything\u2019s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo heart tones?\u201d I said. Now I was fully awake. The Doppler used echoes to pick up the heart sounds, often finding tones a stethoscope missed. \u201cThis is a good time to take the couple to the hospital,\u201d I said. \u201cI\u2019ll meet you there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The midwife insisted I come to the motel room. The couple had chosen the place because it was close to the hospital in case of an emergency, but they hoped to avoid it. \u201cI want to honor their wishes,\u201d the midwife said. \u201cIf I can just hear the heartbeat, I\u2019d feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe she would feel better, but I wouldn\u2019t. I drove out to the motel, imagining what I would say to Dr. Whitman when he returned. How could he put me in this position?<\/p>\n
The Evergreen was a small ma-and-pa motel tucked behind the Biscuit Caf\u00e9, three blocks from the rural hospital where I worked in Libby, Montana. There was only one car in the lot, though the neon sign read No Vacancy.<\/p>\n
I walked up to the room with my Doppler, my breath misting in the air, and knocked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks for coming,\u201d the midwife said. \u201cI still haven\u2019t found a heartbeat, but she\u2019s almost fully dilated.\u201d<\/p>\n
The motel bedspread was covered with sterile green surgical sheets. On top lay a young woman, her hair in a bun covered by a plain white bonnet. She wore a dark blue linen dress. Her husband had a full beard and clean upper lip.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thank thee for coming,\u201d he said, then went back to whispering what seemed like a prayer. He, like the midwife, seemed to have complete faith that they were in good hands.<\/p>\n
I tucked in the earpiece of the Doppler. In a few moments I picked up the reassuring squish squish <\/em>of a normal fetal heartbeat. \u201cThe baby sounds fine,\u201d I said, relieved. \u201cYou can bring the Doppler back to the hospital after,\u201d I said, handing it to the midwife. I put on my coat and reached for the doorknob.<\/p>\n \u201cDr. Hufman, wait!\u201d the midwife said. Something wasn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n I put on gloves and checked the birth canal. The baby was midway down. But when I reached out my fingers, instead of feeling the top of a head I felt a nose, mouth and eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a face presentation,\u201d I said. My voice was calm and steady, but inside I was terrified. In a normal birth, a baby comes out of the womb head first, face turned down, the best position from which to navigate the curved birth canal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In rare situations\u2014so rare I\u2019d never actually seen one myself\u2014a baby came down with the face pointed forward, unable to negotiate the curve. The results could be serious\u2014even fatal\u2014for mother and child. I pulled the midwife aside.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to get her to the hospital,\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t you turn the head yourself?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n \u201cWith each contraction the head is getting wedged deeper in the canal,\u201d I said. \u201cThe neck\u2019s bending unnaturally. A normal birth is practically impossible. She needs an emergency C-section. It\u2019s my call.\u201d<\/p>\n I grabbed the phone, mentally calculating how long it would take the C-section team to get to the hospital with all its modern equipment. All these people had was me. I glanced over my shoulder.<\/p>\n The husband was still calmly praying beside his silent wife. For a second I envied his ignorance about obstetrics. How else to explain his faith?<\/p>\n \u201cDoctor, look!\u201d<\/p>\n The young Amish mother still hadn\u2019t uttered a word, but her jaw was clenched\u2014an unmistakable sign that she was pushing out the baby.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, that will only make things worse!\u201d I said helplessly, hanging up the phone and running to her. At the opening of the birth canal a nose and two puffy eyelids appeared. There was no turning back now. \u201cPush!\u201d I said, slipping on a new pair of gloves.<\/p>\n Like an unexpected miracle, the baby\u2019s head popped out, followed by a tiny body. She let out a cry that was music to my ears.<\/p>\n I examined the infant. Her little face was swollen like a pumpkin, but that was expected and would go away in a few days. Other than that she was fine. I placed the baby on her mother\u2019s chest.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you, Lord!\u201d said the midwife, looking up.<\/p>\n \u201cLord, we thank thee for our daughter and her safe delivery,\u201d the father said. \u201cAnd for the help you provided through these people.\u201d<\/p>\n I stumbled out into the parking lot. Morning had broken. The parking lot was covered in a fresh, white, powdery snow.<\/p>\n As I stood there blinking at it, church bells started to ring. I\u2019d forgotten it was Sunday. And who was in charge. Everywhere, at all hours, night and day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Babies don\u2019t follow a nine-to-five schedule, so how could obstetricians? I was asleep when the phone woke me in the early hours of a Sunday morning in December back in the 1980s. \u201cYou\u2019re on call,\u201d my wife said, shoving me toward the phone. I was so sleepy it took a few seconds to understand what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[150],"tags":[19,203,51,70,80],"ppma_author":[2179],"class_list":["post-15018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gods-grace","tag-angels-on-earth","tag-community","tag-inspirational-stories","tag-mother","tag-stories-of-hope"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n