God’s Hand in the Pregnancy Process

My wife Betty is near the end of her 37th week of pregnancy now.  In expectation of our first child, we have been preparing, waiting, taking classes, reading books and sewing (well, the last two are more her).  The more I reflect on this time, the more I realise how much the pregnancy process points to the work of another – that is, God.

I think it was just before this time last year… Betty and I were thinking that it was about time we were more proactive about having a child.  One month passes.  Then two… and she wasn’t pregnant.  We knew it sometimes takes months or years for a couple to conceive.  But it was hard not to think it was never to happen.  Shortly after we found out she was pregnant, we randomly watched a documentary showing actually how complex and how many things had to come together at the same time for a conception to happen.  While it is not a man being raised from the dead, indeed there is something truly miraculous about the start of a new life.

It actually really hit me when we were in our parent education class.  The instructor was saying how when a child is born, the ideal scenario is when the head pops out first.  THEN, there are these muscles in the mother’s body that actually turn the baby something like a quarter turn.  Why?  So the shoulders can fit through more easily.  Did you get that?  The muscles actually turns the baby after the head pops out so that the shoulders can more easily fit through.  Then the instructor in this public hospital says, “It’s just so amazing how our bodies are designed.” (Not meaning to get into an Evolution vs. ID debate here… just saying there is just something very beautiful in how our bodies were made.)

Then, the other day, we were visited by the community midwife to brief us on any final details we needed to know about the childbirth.  She was talking about how Betty needs to deliver the placenta after delivering the baby (yes, it is a weird idea) and asking her if she wanted to have an injection to accelerate the delivering of the placenta.  At this point, I asked the midwife how long the umbilical cord was… that is, if the placenta was still in Betty, if the baby could be brought up to her still.  The midwife responds and says, “Actually, yes.  And if the baby breast-feeds immediately, Betty’s body will produce a hormone to make her uterus contract and help her deliver the placenta quicker.”  She went on to say how there are all these medical benefits of breast-feeding (e.g., lower change of ovarian and breast cancer, transferring of antibodies to the child, etc.).

While I appreciate all the achievements in medical technology and love technology myself (after all, I do work for a multi-national technology innovator… plug, plug), I am reminded that without all of these things, women have been giving birth for a very long time now all by themselves.  We have chosen not to know the gender of the child beforehand and are now waiting anxiously and nervously for the child to come any day… week… minute now.  But I am grateful that this child and our lives are all in the hands of the Almighty, the Creator of the cosmos.  Thank you God.