Sudden Death
By Victor M. Parachin
October 1, 1995
Ann was ecstatic to learn she was pregnant again. For nine months she carried her child, experiencing all the various stages of her baby's growth and development.
Late in her ninth month, she went into labor, and her husband rushed her to the hospital. The couple was sent directly into the delivery room. Their physician estimated that the baby would arrive in less than an hour.
Shortly after his announcement, the fetal heart monitor around Ann's abdomen abruptly stopped.
"Suddenly, the entire atmosphere was charged with tension and anxiety," her husband later recalled. "I was rushed out as nurses and doctors rushed in." An emergency Caesarean section was performed, but despite the best efforts of the medical professionals, the baby was stillborn.
In shock, the father called me; I was their minister. I will never forget the moment I walked into their hospital room and saw Ann holding her child, a perfectly developed little girl.
"She was strangled by her own umbilical cord," Ann told me, tears streaming down her face.
Ann's pain, unfortunately, is not rare. Statistics indicate there is one still birth (defined as the death of a fetus between the twentieth week of pregnancy and birth) for every eighty live births. Often the cause of death is unknown.
Whenever a baby is born dead, nothing feels real except the pain. Here are suggestions for pastors helping those who have experienced stillbirth.
ENCOURAGE THEM TO SEE THE BABY
While this is a decision each parent must make, those who have held and viewed their child found it to be therapeutic. Here is one mother's expression:
"My husband said we had a girl and she was truly beautiful. He encouraged me to see her and offered to bring our baby into the room. She was all wrapped up in a blanket ...
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