Our Little Miracle is Born…

“One more day and your baby wouldn’t have made it. We would’ve been dealing with a tragedy – a stillbirth.”

The busy theatre seemed to stand still as the doctors words echoed through the room. He called my husband to stand alongside him and take a picture of the chord gripped tightly around our little girls neck.

It was sobering, overwhelming and surreal thinking about how close we came to possibly losing our daughter. It was only God that saved us.

For the past few weeks I’ve been putting together my to-do list for our home – in preparation of the baby and the influx of guests that are likely to come through. This included everything from bedding to curtains and repairing door locks. I’ve also been busy trying to arrange recordings for delegates of a seminar our church recently hosted. At last count my to-do list was about 3 pages long. There was still a month to go before our little princess arrived, and my plan was to get everything sorted out within the next 2 weeks.

God though had other plans.

I’ve had quite a tumultuous pregnancy from the very beginning and suffered greatly with hyperemisis gravidarum. I spent a significant amount of time in hospital. Feel free to click on this link to read more about that condition…

https://diaryofapastorswife.org/2019/02/15/when-life-throws-you-a-gigantic-curveball/

Other issues then followed from infections to extreme heartburn and excruciating pain. But perhaps the worst part was this past Saturday when a single solitary cough – yes just a cough – caused something to shift in the sacrum area of my lower back. As a result sitting and standing was either impossible or resulted in me bursting into a piercing cry and a flood of tears every time. Painkillers didn’t work and I resorted to physiotherapy. I wasn’t sure how my gynae would be able to help and so I thought I would wait for our routine gynae checkup at the end of the week.

However my psyio insisted that I contact the gynae and fill him in on what’s been happening. After mustering the strength to do so on Wednesday, I went to his consulting rooms. I was admitted and treated for extreme coccydynia. A scan was done on the baby and she was 100% fine. I then began treatment for my lower back pain.

On Thursday morning the nurses came in at 5am and did a normal tracing test on baby. Imagine my surprise when my gynae arrived shortly afterward to urgently wheel me to his rooms.

A scan showed that the chord was now around the babys neck and that her breathing was irregular. He spoke about the little girl coming early but I had to double check if he meant now – as in today (Thursday). I was in disbelief and shock that things had literally changed overnight. I mean I hadn’t even packed my hospital bag!

Three quick calls to my hubby and mums and the stage was set for an emergency caesar. Hubby and our helper had to get a bag packed quickly with the essentials for baby and myself.

The caesar was due at 12 midday but was then brought forward to 11am. It was a crazy rush with little time to process everything.

In all of this we found solace in the Word of the Lord spoken over our lives by our spiritual father.

On the operating table, the wonderful staff reassured us that we were in good hands.

All we waited for was to hear the baby cry – to know that she was ok, that she made it.

When the doctor pulled our little girl out and showed us the chord wrapped tightly around her neck we knew this was a miracle child in every way. He said if I hadn’t suffered so much with the back pain and eventually come to hospital to treat it, the child would have likely been stillborn by the time I came in for my check up the next day. From all the questions the doctor asked me regarding babys movement, contractions etc, there was absolutely nothing that would have prompted me to sense that anything was wrong.

I get goosebumps when thinking about it because our routine visit was actually on Friday (a day later). If God hadn’t intervened we would be telling a very different story today.

I am reminded of the scripture in Jeremiah 1:5.

We have aptly named her Gabriella Elizabeth-Rose – a champion, messenger and worshipper of God.

Weighing in at 1.8kgs, she is in the neonatal ICU where she will spend the next week or so to grow and develop. We are so grateful to the Lord for His mercies and for our miracle baby!

Psalm 92:5

“How magnificent are Your works, LORD, how profound Your thoughts! “

Psalm 139:14

“I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Marvelous are Your works,

And that my soul knows well.”

 

Melini Moses together with her husband Justin, lead Life Community church in Johannesburg. She is a News Editor at the South African Broadcasting Corporation, a Dag Hammarskjold and World Press Institute Fellow.