Another day at the office

I don't normally blog about work (we have way more interesting stuff going on at home usually) but today is the hopefully rare exception. I had the opportunity to care for a young lady the other night who'd suffered an IUFD -- intrauterine fetal demise. Basically her baby had died in utero and she had to deliver him dead at about 5 1/2 months. And she was 16. It was a great opportunity for learning. When I first started working there, I wasn't sure how I would handle IUFDs. Not scared really, just not sure what to expect from myself. It turns out that this is something that, while I don't wish for it to happen, is a great ministry opportunity. People tend to be very in touch with the spiritual side of themselves when there is a death, regardless of the age of the one who has died. Moms (and dads) usually want to hold their baby, no matter what he/she looks like and no matter how little. (This one was just over 1 pound and just over a foot long.) That may sound a little morbid, as babies who've died in utero don't look like normal healthy live babies, and that's exaggerated even more if there's some sort of birth defect. But I think it's great that parents do that. It gives them a sense of this being a real human being and it puts something concrete to go with their sense of loss. We always take a picture of the baby for the parents; even if they don't want it right then, many do come back later for it. This is not a subject I enjoy dwelling on, but like I said earlier, it is a super ministry opportunity. I felt like I was ministering more to this mother than I did with a lot of other moms with live babies. Especially with this mom; she being very young herself needed someone to mother her. I feel like God understands a whole lot about loss; after all, He lost a Son once too.