My Birth Story (for DSP's BOM Challenge)

My mother always tells me that I am a miracle baby. Daddy was not supposed to be able to father a child, so after my parents married, my mother went off birth control. She had been off it for a week when they conceived me--evidently while she was giving Daddy a permanent (and by that I mean that he had curlers in his hair). That has always cracked me up. Mama says it was a relatively easy pregnancy, with all of the standard morning sickness and discomfort. She only gained 18lbs, so I can’t imagine it was that bad. I’ve seen pictures of her when she was pregnant with me, and she looks beautiful and happy.

I was due on Mama’s birthday, April 18th, but Mama never went into labor. So, they set an induction date of April 28th. According to her, she and Daddy spent the whole day before cooking food for all the company they were expecting—I can totally imagine the two of them in the kitchen together!

The story of my actual birth I have pieced together from conversations with Mama and Daddy (and my grandparents, too). My understanding is that Mama was fully dilated, but that she could not push me out. Every time she would push, I would uncurl my head. I don’t think Mama really realized something was wrong until Dr. Blanton (the older, more experienced OB who was not on call but was an old family friend) showed up. She says that she asked him, “What are you doing here? I thought Dr. Dillard was going to deliver the baby.” He reportedly said, “I heard you were having a baby, and I couldn’t just sit at home across the street!” Meanwhile, Dr. Dillard was telling my father that my mother was dying (I am still not sure exactly why) and that there was no way that both of us were going to survive the birth. My grandmother says that my father literally dropped to his knees at the news and told Dr. Dillard to save my mother, if he could. She also says that after Dr. Dillard left, Daddy sat down in the chair and cried.

But we both did survive it. I was born via cesarean section at 11:35pm on April 28, 1976 in Selma, Alabama to James Thomas Cater and Sarah Frances Crisman Cater. Mama almost bled to death after the surgery and her blood pressure was dangerously low. And according to Mama, they later told her that the cord was wrapped around my neck in such a way that caused my head to pull back when she would push. Dr. Dillard officially delivered, but Dr. Blanton was there assisting because (as he later told my parents) things got so bad that Dr. Dillard called him for help.

So, that is why I am a miracle baby. I was born to a woman who was barely off birth control and a man who wasn’t supposed to have enough sperm to make a baby. And I survived a birth that I wasn’t supposed to survive. I have always felt a little lucky to have made it, and I know that God must have some purpose for me because of it.