Document text
Over the Back Fence By HANK HENRY Fathers� childbirth role goes full circle One of the worst things that could happen to a mother-to-be in the first decades of the 20th century was to have her baby on a remote ranch without access to a telephone. Nora�s Aunt Mary, now 86, was delivered by her father on just such a ranch because the midwife had not arrived. Her father read aloud from the family�s "birthing book" while he waited for the baby to appear. By the 1930s and �40s, thanks to rural telephone service, it was rare for fathers to deliver their own babies; but in the following decades, fathers were no longer allowed to even watch the delivery. I remember when our first child was due. I held Nora�s hand and tried to comfort her during the more than seven hours of labor. When the contractions finally started to come closer and closer, a nurse pushing a gurney came into the room, loaded Nora aboard, and headed for the delivery room. Another nurse showed me where the waiting room for expectant fathers was located, far away from the delivery area. I wondered if some father somewhere ever raised a ruckus in those days over being excluded from the event that was one of the highlights of his life. It was not that the father didn�t know his wife intimately, or that the birth of a baby would somehow be shocking. After all, he was there from the beginning. I know I remained in the waiting room until a nurse appeared and said, "You have a beautiful baby girl." Nora and I had agreed to name her April. I was later allowed to see our child by standing in the hall and looking through the glass into the nursery for the newborns. We were in Montana almost three years later when our second child, Joseph, was almost ready to be born. I say "almost" because I would drive Nora and April to the hospital, but her contractions would go away by the time I found a parking place. We sat there and talked or listened to late-night radio shows for awhile. We went through that routine a couple of times before Nora was finally admitted. We had no baby-sitter, so I took April back to the house and waited for the news. Our third child, Melody, was born here in Medford. In all three births, the hospitals kept new mothers and their babies for about 72 hours. The newborns spent most of that time in a nursery down the hall. The babies were only returned to their mothers when they demanded to be fed. That was then. Now we have five grandchildren, and the fathers were allowed to attend each birth. Nora and I were talking the other day about what a difference there is between the way doctors and hospitals operated more than 30 years ago and the way they do now. Then, mothers-to-be were housed with the general population of the hospital. Now they have their own place, and each room is designed to look like a bedroom in a fabulous home. In the old days, the babies were kept in a nursery. Now the mother gives birth right in her own room, and the baby stays with her until both are discharged less than two days later. But special birthing places, as wonderful as they may be, are not the greatest invention in the last 30 years to help a mother. The hands-down winner of that award goes to the inventors of disposable diapers. These appeared on the market a long time after we had a need for them. Until the 1980s, the only diapers available were cloth. During the Depression, housewives made diapers from worn-out shirts or bed sheets. Now, disposable diapers have Velcro fasteners and are designed to be rolled up in a small package for disposal. While modern hospitals have improved their delivery rooms, and modern technology has made diaper-changing easier, the mother�s job remains the hardest: bringing a baby into the world in the first place. (Hank Henry is a retired Jackson County commissioner and a former radio and television announcer. Call him at 772-9055.) Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA