A doctor who helped a mother give birth to a 13 lbs 11 oz baby girl was quoted as saying, “We are all very satisfied with the work which we carried out.”
The hospital staff deserve to be satisfied! They did at least one thing flawlessly: supporting the mother in having a vaginal birth. They may also have used technical skills to help guide the baby out, and to help the baby thrive once she was born.
But the real credit goes, of course, to Maxine Marin, the 40-year-old mother of four (her other babies were no shrimps either), who did all the work, without even an epidural.
I don’t want to glorify natural-birth moms at the expense of those who require interventions to birth their babies. But I do want to celebrate this strong mama and her care providers for showing us all what is possible.