Labor Day

Labor Day.... a day in September..... but to Perinatal Nurses, every day is Labor Day.  I come from a very big family and when I was in the ninth grade my mother went into labor on Labor Day with my youngest sister.  I was supposed to go to a babysitting job that evening so Mom was grilling me some pork chops before I went.  I remember her calling to me and I went along hurrying to follow her into the house and saw so much blood..... I was very scared.  

This would be my mother's seventh child.  As I know now, she was a grand multiparous, elderly, advanced maternal age with a history of hemorrhage with every delivery.   The only thing that probably would have been worse for me at this point was if she had the baby at home!

My Dad was summoned after I helped clean my mother up.  I canceled my babysitting job because I would be babysitting my own brothers and sisters while dad took mom to the hospital.  Dad knew the drill and got my mother promptly to the hospital.

A few hours later, Dad returned and told us we had a new baby sister.  My parents had given up on naming babies and told us we could name her.  There was a show back then called My Favorite Martian.  My siblings and I loved that show and one of the characters had a girlfriend named Laura Lee so that is what we suggested they name the baby and they did!   Although in looking up the show for this picture, I found on Wikipedia that her name was spelled, Lorelei.  <so sorry Laura, we misspelled your name!>

Back then, dads did not stay at the hospital with the moms and the older siblings definitely did not get to go to the hospital to see the baby sisters and brothers.  So we stayed home and waited for our mother and baby sister to come home!  My mother did have to have blood transfusion after Laura was born.  But, Laura was perfect and Mom was soon back to normal.  

Every Labor Day, I think back to this story, pork chops, BBQ, being scared, and of course, My Favorite Martian! I also wonder if this was the exact moment I decided to be a Perinatal Nurse.