My 1st Moments with Rhys

In celebration of Mother’s Day & Mama’s everywhere I’m sharing my 1st moments with Rhys & images of newborns from around the world as a part of my work with the The Global Team of 200 and our partnership with Save The Children.

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I went in for a regular checkup 3 days before Rhys’ due date.  “Something’s not quite right,” she said.  She called in 4 people & they all stuck their hands up my yahoo, pressed, prodded & photographed before declaring, “call your husband! Now!”  My heart sunk, “what on earth?”  She said I was 6 cm dialated & couldn’t I tell.  Nope. She said, something was wrong, something about a mass & his oxygen levels.  She said it was time to get me on pitocin & get him out as quick as possible.  Doc offered me a wheelchair but I literally had not felt a single contraction so I drove myself over.

In a few hours, I’d progressed 2 cm & still hadn’t felt a contraction.  The labor was so pain free, in fact, my hubby, Jess & I played Bohnanza, rocked out to a Gospel play list & ate Burger King.  I was put on a pitocin drip, given an epidural.  A few hours later, I pushed.  The cord was tightly wrapped around Rhys’ neck, the mass they’d seen was a very, very large blood clot that was pushing him in such a way he was losing oxygen.

I’ll never forget the moment Doc said, “he must come out now!” And pleaded with me to give it all I had.  After an unproductive push, the nurse told Jess to stop recording.  His head was out & it was a pale shade of scary purple.  No recording she said.  The equivalent of “let’s not have a video of a dead baby.”  I spent those moments in silent, pleading prayer.  When he came out, it took a minute or two before he made a sound.  The silence was deafening.  But then.  They gave him to me…

…and he was so loved.  And I cried those big, fat happy tears.

I stared at his perfect little face.

These first moments were so special.  So safe.

Statistics say the day a baby is born is his or her’s most dangerous day of life in any country in the world.  More than 1 million babies die the day they are born.  Without proper prenatal & healthcare this could have been our little Rhysie!

Instead I took him home, safe & sound.

According to www.savethechildren.org’s Mothers’ Index, report Finland is the best place in the world to be a Mama, Democratic Republic of Congo is the toughest.  The U.S. is the 30th just above Japan and South Korea—but below all of Western Europe,  Australia, Slovenia, Singapore, New Zealand, Estonia, Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, Belarus, Lithuania and Poland. The Mothers’ Index rankings are determined by five indicators on education, income, women’s political representation and the chances a mother and her baby will survive.

Check out the response of Jennifer Garner, Rachel Zoe, Alyson, Hannigan and Jennifer Connelly in a Save the Children video talking about their babies’ first moments.

Let’s celebrate the beautiful Mama’s who made all these beautiful babies. {All images courtesy of Save the Children, Photo: Ian P. Hurley/Save the Children}.

Life is a gift!  Aren’t they simply beautiful?