I took a friend to the hospital the other day to visit his sister. She had just had a baby--a baby that she knew ahead of time would die shortly after birth. Her baby lived for 2 hours. The baby had been diagnosed in utero with trisomy 18, a chromosomal defect. The mother had prepared herself ahead of time as much as she could. It was still very sad to watch. Close relatives and friends have had miscarriages, but not at seven months of pregnancy. While at the hospital, I went to see my niece who had also just had a baby a few hours after my friend's sister. She was tired (after a very long labor ending in a c-section) yet beaming at a beautiful & perfect dark-haired little boy.
On the way home from the hospital with my friend, his sister, and the baby's dad we stopped at a department store to buy a little white dress for the baby's viewing and burial. We didn't talk much on the half-hour drive home. There seemed to be little to say. The greatest "what ifs" in all of life.
Today I was thinking about how this contrast of joy and sadness is a daily occurrence in many parts of the world where pregnant women never know if they will deliver a healthy baby or struggle through a pregnancy only to mourn the loss of a child.
Posts
