FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida mother made a special delivery with a new doctor’s hands-on approach for labor.
Weighing in at 6 pounds, 11 ounces, Emerson was born on Monday. The first person who was able to hold him was his mother, Rachel Sharpless Willis, thanks to the mother-assisted cesarean section procedure.
“The very first thing I touched was his head, and so it’s this hard surface, and I even said, ‘It feels like a bowling ball,'” and he’s like pull, pull, and I’m pulling, and I’m like, ‘I think I’m choking him.’ My doctor is like, ‘You’re not choking him. We need you to pull, we need you to pull him out.'”
Sharpless Willis was able to help deliver Emerson with the guidance of her doctor, Channing Coe, M.D.
“I pulled him out and laid him on my chest, and they’re cleaning him, and it’s just an odd feeling,” she said, “’cause, again, it’s not something I would experience or someone on the other side of the drapes would experience every day.”
“We were able to put a sterile gown on Mom and sterile gloves, and she was able to reach down to the field and assist with the delivery of her baby,” said Dr. Delisa Skeete Henry, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Broward Health Medical Center.
This method allows mothers to feel more connected to their baby during a C-section child birth.
“As long as it’s safe, it’s not putting baby or mom at risk, I think we’re willing to entertain and try to compile with Mom’s request,” said Henry.
Sharpless Willis was the first person to ever perform a mother assisted C-section, along with the procedure ever being done at Broward Health Medical Center. The hospital said it was thrilled to work with her to give her the birthing experience she had always envisioned.
Broward Health hopes more mothers will get involved with the procedure and get the experience they always wanted.
Sharpless Willis said her first moments with Emerson will make a great story to tell her son one day.
“Grateful to be part of the experience, still can’t believe that I did it, and now he’s here,” she said. “To be able to experience that delivery the way that I did? Very, very grateful.”
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