Baby Roko was born on Friday and even as I write this almost a week later, I can still feel the energy of the birth, the smell of the birthing suite and the adrenalin that filled the room.
We were texting back and forth on Friday morning, Belinda reassuring me that she still had a few hours up her sleeve despite her contractions having started hours earlier. Given this was Belinda’s fourth baby, I figured she was definitely the best judge of this. Nonetheless, I dropped my kids off to various friends’ houses so that I was best prepared. Barely an hour passed when I got the text advising she was heading to the hospital. I knew when she stopped texting that things had quickly progressed, and I would need all the green lights on my 45 minute drive to the hospital to make it. I rushed and prayed in the car for the baby to wait. Royal Women’s has multiple underground levels of parking and typically at this moment of panic, there were no free car spaces in sight. With my eye on the clock that seemed only to tick faster, I wedged myself between a car and a post which looked more like a motorbike space. I ran through all the corridors, madly shouting at the receptionist “Room 15??!!!!”, thinking if I hear a baby crying, I’m in serious trouble.
The doors swung open and I knelt down in time to see Belinda and Steve’s baby boy making his way to this side of Earth. Belinda was so calm and content and one minute later their beautiful son was born. With the cord attached, the nurse gently cleaned his head, which needed some extra attending to given he came so fast that he kept some of the amniotic sac on his head, looking like a cap.
Belinda cut the cord after it stopped pulsating, cuddling her precious boy. Dad couldn’t stop the tears and I could see how proud he was.
The body knew what do to, one could tell. It came to her naturally, putting baby on the breast without much interference from the midwives. She managed to crack jokes right after the birth with Steve and the nurses, making everyone laugh in the room. She wouldn’t like me to say this, but I reckon she could easily go for number five…