A caesarean section with a memorable twist!

My most memorable Caesarean Section as a junior hospital doctor, and a Perinatal Pearl of wisdom for all "parents to be"!

It was back in 2004 while working at St Richards Hospital in England in the beautiful cathedral city of Chichester. I was completing one of my obstetrics & gynaecology terms as a Senior House Officer and would regularly assist the consultant or registrar during caesarean sections.

Adorned in my faded blue scrubs, I was in theatre and was chatting to a lovely couple who were about to become first time parents. It was a planned caesarean and the excitement was building. We chatted about the things that every new parent thinks about during a pregnancy and just before birth: meeting their baby for the first time, wondering what their baby will look like, finding out if their baby was a boy or girl...

During a caesarean it is common practice that there is a sterile sheet (known as a drape) pinned up between mum's chest and her abdomen, both to shield the mother's view of her surgery, but also to keep the surgical area sterile. On this day, the time had come. Baby was out and my consultant held him up above the sheet so his mother could cast eyes on him for the first time....

And there it was. Almost as if in slow motion, a fine jet of pee in the most perfect projectile curve arched up and over the sheet. As mum gazed up lovingly to see her baby for the first time, she realised in that split second that he was definitely a boy, right before being hit square between her eyes by her little boy's first wee!

A memorable, unforgettable and definitely unexpected first meeting!

The Perinatal Pearl of wisdom from this story? –Nothing can quite prepare you for having a baby, always expect the unexpected!

Does anyone else have a funny memory of when they first met their baby?

Photo credit: Alex Hockett