Storks

(quick post before I dash off for the entire day)

A few nights ago, I dreamed I was delivering a baby. The patient was yelling and I was too ("It's coming! I can't help it!" "Nooo- you've got to wait for the ambulance!") in sheer panic. It is one thing to deliver Manniken Annie's baby(EMT class) and quite another to do it live.

"Breathe, Breathe!" I said, as much for my benefit as for the patient. Maybe I would get my stork pin. (something every EMT looks forward to, it's like a badge of honor that you delivered in the field)

"Aughhhh!"

One push, two push, three push, four pushes..and the baby is in my arms, I'm drenched in blood and the amniotic sac is on the ground,(I think that actually bursts-in reality) the umbilical cord is still tying baby to mom. I take a knife cutter and hack the cord loose,and tie, hoping I did it at the right place. (extremely graphic dream)

"Where is that ambulance???"

There is something wrong with the baby, she has a hole in her head and proceeds to bleed to death in my arms. The ambulance never comes. The mom cries, and I cry because I didn't know what to do. Didn't want a stork pin anymore. In reality,I've never witnessed a live birth so anything other then a straightforward one would be a total disaster. Babies are so little, so delicate. No margin for error. It was the sort of dream that leaves a vivid impression on one, life is so fragile.