Birth Sounds
Tales From Labor & Delivery
by
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These women have never left me. Their faces all converge, stray molecules of memory, lined up randomly, phosphorescent, scintillating, imploding, being born. I reach out to them, capturing a thousand glimpses of chin, the open mouth, the running mascara, the sweat, now lightning in my hands, their words, my words, now one. Their stories, like new faces, leave ripples on the imagination, growing, expanding, with exponential sounds. Each woman has a story. I give birth to them. Later that morning I opened the curtain surrounding the bed of Mrs. Nyugen. I expected a tired smile, a polite hello, a mixed Asian accent, perhaps a nursing baby at her chest, a chance for a new introduction. She lay resting on her back, a white towel now draped over her face. She must have heard my entrance on to the postpartum floor. Culture shock, modesty. Large cabbage leaves covered both breasts, the green parchment attached like elephant ears, green, ripe, to prevent engorgement. A blanket draped her hips, warm from sleep. It was a surreal sight, a mouth moving underneath the terrycloth fabric, her chest flopping a spongy vegetable coverage. I checked the uterus, firm, a small softball now, the former housing of the infant. I spoke deliberate words, a slow pronunciation, in long syllables, informing her in basic sounds that she was doing well.
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About the Book
"Each woman has a story, each a sound, each a birth--" A husband holds a lantern while his wife pushes in labor during a hurricane. A woman vows to kill her newborn child when he is born. A middle-aged lady receives her fossilized baby after two decades. A teenager tosses her murdered newborn over a fence in a red bag. A woman giving birth does not allow her face to be seen. A family votes whether to accept the doctor’s advice to perform a Cesarean. A woman must undergo brain surgery and birth simultaneously. A woman in shock from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy has HIV. A man stares at his three babies in the nursery, all born through different women. A full moon night. A specialized birth plan. A strange gallbladder attack. A new basketball team. A Christmas stillbirth. A strange humming sound in the delivery room. A woman with numerous pregnancy losses finally gives birth wearing Scooby Doo socks-- In Birth Sounds, Dr. Moraczewski presents 45 narratives based upon characters and events from his twenty years of obstetrical practice in both the civilian suburban and military hospital settings. Nearly all aspects of childbirth are depicted in his collection subtitled Tales from Labor & Delivery, the range spanning the routine, the rare, and the ridiculous. Most women and their birth partners will quickly identify with the pushing, panting, complications, and delirium of giving birth. The stylized medical stories include women presenting without prenatal care, ectopic pregnancies, breast cancer in pregnancy, unusual prenatal office visits, an abdominal pregnancy, normal births, Cesarean deliveries. He recounts the wide-eyed wonder and anxiety of his first night on call as an intern, his initial observation of childbirth, the learning of medical procedures in pregnancy, a classmate’s experience of delivering his first baby. Dr. Moraczewski, affectionately called ‘Dr. M’ in the book, even cites some of the new consumerism entering the birthing arena, including satirically humorous depictions of exotic birth plans, videotaping the baby’s birth, family feuds in the birthing room, and doulas. In Birth Sounds, Thomas Moraczewski, M.D. lyrically recounts the sights, quirky language, sounds, triumphs, and heartaches of having babies in the modern hospital setting. He weaves the stories of birth in a poetic and haunting realism, the tales often humorous and stark. Each story is the celebration of new human life, the sounds gritty, the music of humanity a non-repeating score.
About the Author
Thomas Moraczewski, M.D. is a practicing Obstetrician-Gynecologist in Ft. Walton Beach and Destin, Florida. He holds a B.S. in physics from the University of Notre Dame and an M.D. from Loyola University School of Medicine in Chicago. He did an OB-GYN internship and residency at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington, one of the military’s busiest obstetrical hospitals. He also served as chief of Ob-Gyn at the Army Hospital at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. He is a traveling professor of Reproductive Bioethics at the Christian Life School of Theology centered in Columbus, Georgia. He is the author of Life’s Beginnings, a study on obstetrics from a spiritual perspective, published in 1998. He is a frequent guest on radio, churches, and lecture halls dealing with modern bioethical issues. He lives in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida with his wife Neelam. He has two children, Alexei and Alya. During his medical career, Dr. Moraczewski has delivered nearly 6,000 babies. In between births and time with family, Dr. M tries to play the piano--