Trial of Labor

I had seen labor and delivery once previously, and it's really amazing. It awes me to think that this is the renewing process that has persisted (obviously) through all of humankind. Generation after generation, women have undergone this trial of labor in solidarity. And now, participating in some peripheral role, I have stepped into the lives of these women, routine deliveries for me, but pivotal life events for the patients and their families. I am awed in watching this intensive, emotional, and triumphant sequence of events and humbled that I can take part. Perhaps one day, clamping and cutting the cord, turning the placenta as it comes out, counting out the pushes may become banal, but I hope that first moment - the cry of the baby, the delivery onto a maternal abdomen, the wide smile of relief of new parents - that those things never lose their magic.