We often hear about spouses helping deliver babies–and being there to hold their new baby for the first time–and feeling that incredible skin-to-skin contact. Well, recently, a sister was able to help deliver her baby brother. And you can imagine how amazing this experience was for her.
12-year-old Jacee Dellapena helped deliver her baby brother last week with the help of a doctor. She enjoyed the moment so much, she apparently wants to be an OB-GYN herself. Her mom, Dede Carraway, told The Huffington Post that she’s “never been so happy.”
While Jacee told her parents months ago about her desire to be in the hospital during the birth of her brother Cayson, the delivery assistance was suggested by the doctor. In the Facebook group Love What Matters, Dede opened up about what happened in the delivery room:
“They converted my bed and Jacee was so upset because she is so short … she thought she wasn’t going to be able to see the delivery over the bed. My doctor, Dr. Walter Wolfe, then suggested, ‘Jacee, why don’t you suit up and come deliver the baby?’”
Jacee even ended up being able to cut the umbilical cord.
Normalizing pregnancy and birth to kids is so essential not only to their education, but in order for them to take more active roles within a society that too often stigmatizes moms. When they grow up, girls like Jacee will also be able to make more informed choices about what she wants out of career and family–since she’s had firsthand experiences already at age 12.
For her mom, it was transformative as well–which isn’t too hard to imagine, especially as her epidural had stopped working during labor. Because of Jacee’s support, it helped her deal with the pain, as she said Jacee “being down there and being able to focus on her, it helped a whole lot. It was amazing.”
There’s nothing like love, is there?
Can we ask?
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Joanna Valente is the former Staff Writer at Kveller. Joanna is the author of Sirs & Madams, The Gods Are Dead, Xenos, and Marys of the Sea, and received an MFA at Sarah Lawrence College. You can follow @joannasaid on Twitter and @joannacvalente on Instagram.
