Welcome to the World

I just delivered my first baby girl-- well, to be honest, all I did was watch (and I´m not the father!), but I felt like I was a part of the process since I was only a few feet away from where it all went down. Many of you have probably seen a few births, but just indulge me by thinking back to your first one.
It was overcast today, and I arrived at the cramped, drab Maternity Hospital with a couple friends at 1:00, just avoiding a downpour. After changing into green scrubs and touring the delivery room area, we realized it would be a slow afternoon since only 3 women were in the ¨Dilatacion¨ room and none was in serious labor. But over the next couple of hours, I learned how to palpate a pregnant uterus and watched a doctor remove parts of a placenta of a woman who had had a miscarriage (a procedure that is every bit as bloody as you might imagine). After twiddling our fingers for a while (apparently a common activity in obstetrics) and feeling our hope wane, one of the three ladies (a 15-year-old) finally get wheeled to the delivery room around 4:00 PM. Just 10 or 15 minutes later, a baby girl with dark, curly hair and a gigantic fontanelle entered the world. I had to fight back tears when the baby drew its first breath, let out its first cry, and the mother´s face blossomed from agony into joy. Below is a picture a a couple babies in the maternity ward, the baby girl I saw delivered, and me holding the little tyke.

Though she´ll never remember it, the first words ever spoken to her were mine-- ¨Bienvenidos al mundo!¨ is what I told her. Welcome to the world.