Thursday, September 18, 2008

amazing Sri Lankan birth story

So since mostly all I think about is birth these days, I was remembering a story that a friend told us about his uncle. Some of you all might have heard of him or known him -- I won't put his name on here, but we'll call him "L." "L" was a very kind, gentle, Sri Lankan man who I believe had been a tailor. He was a widower visiting the States from Sri Lanka and he met and married an American widow, very late in life. I believe they were both in their 80's when they married. Amazingly, they had around ten wonderful years together if I'm not mistaken. He sewed his wife's wedding dress and after that he sewed all her clothes. They were beautifully done. I know he was in his 90's when he died. I know some of his family, but I never knew him. Because of circumstances, I was present at a small memorial service to bury his ashes. (His wife is still alive but in a rest home.) Afterward, some were telling stories about him. This is the story of how he was born:

His mother was giving birth at home, as usual in that day, and for some reason, the midwife could not get there in time. So she sent an assistant who had much less experience. The birth went fine -- a baby was born, the placenta was delivered, and later, the midwife arrived. When the midwife got there, she told the assistant "show me and tell me everything you did." The assistant recounted the details of the birth -- how the labor went, the timing of the birth, the birth of the placenta. The assistant had taken the placenta outside and put it in a hole to be buried. The midwife said, "Show me the placenta." So they went outside and the midwife looked at the placenta in the hole -- and it MOVED. She picked it up -- and there was another baby in the membranes! Apparently that part of the membranes had not broken apart and it was not obvious that there was a baby in there! The mother had had twins and she didn't know it!!!! That baby was L. They took him inside, cleaned him off, and he lived for 93 or so years. He used to say, with a twinkle in his eye, and in his lilting accent, "Truly God brought me out of a horrible pit..."

5 comments:

jay are said...

That is such a great story!!

Rob said...

the weirdest thing is that exact same thing happened to *me*. twice, in fact...

Ukraine Jane said...

I enjoyed this very much -- I'm so glad you included it in your blog.

Blogball said...

Wow 2 placenta stories in a row!
What an incredible story. Thanks for sharing it Anya.

Didge said...

Ok, I keep checking in waiting for that amazing Californian birth story but don't remember when your due date is? Hope you are ignoring everyone's advice and getting lots of sleep while you can!!