Claiming a Cord

Abstract

OB/GYN is dominated by women caring for women. And I saw that throughout the rotation, with some male involvement from OB/GYN physicians, anesthesia, and spouses. My heart broke for all of the patients I saw in the hospital alone, giving birth alone, and crying over a child in the NICU alone. On my first day in L&D, on a weekend shift, I witnessed a breathtaking, powerful moment during a birth, when a woman cut her own cord. This is my poem about that moment.