Category Archives: Children

The Desire Accomplished

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This afternoon there was a funny noise in our cottage: the sound of a newborn. Birgitta and Emerald arrived home together but not as together as they’d been for the last 9 months. Now the cord has been cut, and Emerald is breathing and eating as a separate entity. We’ve had the joy of watching her birth and have been changed by the wonder of it all.

Birgitta impressed us by persevering through a torturously long labor that began on Tuesday evening and ended Friday afternoon. Though she’d hoped to pursue an all-natural delivery, the unrelenting contractions that refused to “get organized” (nursing terminology) dictated a different route.

Eventually she had a talk with herself and willingly set aside her personal goals to do what was best for her baby: get her born. She acquiesced to drugs that sped up labor to intolerable levels, then finally had to say yes to additional drugs that helped her save energy for the big push.

In the end, after 67 hours of labor, little Emerald emerged peacefully and intact, swinging one arm out ahead of the rest of her as if to say, “Hi, everybody!” Her delivery room audience of 9 applauded and voiced a welcome, and Birgitta’s longing to meet her baby was satisfied.

The only almost-casualty was Louisa. Overcome with emotion, she came close to a dead-faint but for a quick-thinking nurse and a cold cloth to her neck. Louisa rallied, though, in time to finish videoing the birth and hear that the baby’s middle name would be her own. Her tears of happiness blessed us all.

This labor and delivery was a perfect example of the way God works, too. His solutions to our problems always seem laborious and slow in coming. We ask him to help, then wonder. Did he hear? Is he too busy? Does he care? Can he see this suffering? Why won’t he act?

And then, just like with Birgitta’s seemingly interminable labor, everything changes quickly and resolves. In some cases our cries to God don’t come together with his solutions for months or even years, and while we’re waiting, we lose heart. When that happens, the only thing to do is take his promises at face value and, like Birgitta, continue to persevere. He says, “Remember, I’m still in the middle of this, even though you can’t see me. I said I’d bring an end to your pain, and I will. My methods aren’t like yours, but believe me that they’re always better. You’ll absolutely marvel!”

What better metaphor for that long process than labor and delivery? Birgitta’s memory of her struggle rapidly diminished as elation took over, just as it does when the Lord brings new circumstances that obliterate our old troubles.

We look at what he’s done and wonder how we could have ever doubted he would do it.

“A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy.” (John 16:21)

Stop and Go

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What causes a woman to begin the process of laboring so strongly she can actually bring a baby into this world? The medical profession has a number of theories, none of which is scientifically conclusive, but all of them offer the same bottom line answer: no one knows.

Obstetric nurses will tell you women go into labor when there’s a full moon or a change in barometric pressure. Others might say it’s electrical storms, tornadoes, or hurricanes. A few insist labor begins when stars and planets align in a certain way.

But what do you do if everything within you longs to go into labor but you don’t? Self-help web sites offer all kinds of “natural” suggestions from castor oil to spicy foods to acupuncture, but results are mixed.

My favorite theory is the one that says labor is initiated by the baby herself. Science is speculating that maybe her adrenal gland releases cortisone, causing the placenta to convert estrogen to progesterone, which then produces prostiglandins, which cause the uterus to begin contracting.

If this theory is the correct one, it’s no wonder doctors can’t predict when labor will start. But even if that daisy chain of hormonal events is what triggers it, the baby probably can’t willfully signal her own adrenal gland to start the action. So, what or who does?

Of course it’s God.

I firmly believe he is present with his breath of life at every conception, and once a created being “gets started,” Scripture says it’s Jesus who holds it all together. Because of that, it seems logical the Trinity would be present and involved in the labor directive, “Now’s the time.”

Of course doctors can insist a birth take place by administering drugs, but often the woman’s body (and the baby) resist being rushed, making that known by increasing a mother’s suffering and pain through the labor process.

Contractions and their statistics (length and spacing) have been the conversational theme at our house since yesterday when we were sent home from the hospital with instructions not to return until pains were closer. So Birgitta had a 2nd night of misery, to which Louisa and I said, “Oh, that’s wonderful!” referring to her progress.

But the new day brought a new wrinkle: Labor stopped. Then hours later, it resumed. Then later stopped. And as I’m writing this, it has once again resumed.

Anticipation builds as Birgitta goes into her 3rd miserable night, and a verse from Ecclesiastes is looping in my brain: “God has made everything beautiful in its time.” (v. 11)

And it just isn’t time.