“KYM819 Fair Lawn Communications to the duty crew” were the first words transmitted through the pager that was securely fastened to the belt of my cargo pants. I know that cargo pants are wildly out of style, and trust me, I don’t wear them with any regularity. This is just a snapshot of my life that consumes a big part of who I am when I’m not away at college. Every alter ego needs an appropriate wardrobe, and mine would not be complete without my stunning pair of navy blue cargo pants. This is the uniform I wear whenever I am on duty for the Volunteer Ambulance Corps in my town of Fair Lawn, NJ. Being an E.M.T. has truly been a rewarding experience, and in the two short years that I have served as a member of this organization, my cargo pants and I have seen many interesting injuries, and have met some even more interesting people. Through all of this there is one call in particular that I tend to replay on a loop in my mind, remembering every detail of the call from start to finish: the call that you are about to hear. The message transmission continued as I laced up my boots and seized my stethoscope off of the ice cold kitchen countertop: “…child birth in progress” calmly danced off of the dispatcher’s lips and all I could do was give the pager an incredulous glare. “Was this really happening?” I thought to myself. This past winter break I had the honor of becoming one of the youngest regular members of the Corps, which allows me to respond to calls with just one other member and assume all medical responsibility. On this day my partner was Nick, a good friend of mine who was a freshman in college at the time, and the two of us were about to deliver a baby.
I weaved through side roads to avoid all traffic lights and commuter trains as I responded to our headquarters. Pulling into the parking lot I threw the transmission into park before I got out of the car to meet Nick. He hustled over to me and said, “Did you hear what I just heard?” It turns out that Nick was not as excited as I was to deliver a baby. He began to delegate the work and volunteered himself as the official driver for the call, making me the official stork in this delivery. Nick and I arrived on scene and entered the patient’s house with a well-organized medical bag that balanced out our untamed nerves. A baby-faced 17 year old boy answered the door and pointed us in the direction of our patient. To our surprise, the boy who met us at the door turned out to be the baby’s father, and the 16 year old girl sitting in the living room was our patient for the day.
I assessed our patient and attempted to calm her down as tears streamed down her flushed cheeks. Her boyfriend mentioned that she had been in pain for hours, but the girl was hoping to wait for her mother to come home before she went to the hospital. Our patient described the intense pressure building in the lower half of her body, and we knew that she was well into her contractions. Nick and I called for Paramedics, a standard procedure for emergency child birth. Although child birth is included in the job description for E.M.T.s, Paramedics have almost 1,000 more hours of training, and they have the ability to deliver medication to patients if necessary. On this day, however, we were surprised to find that all paramedic units were preoccupied, and we would be left on our own. With only the knowledge from E.M.T. school to guide us, we made the most of the hand we were dealt and meticulously planned out the birth.
First, Nick and I transferred our patient onto the ambulance stretcher. Sheets were draped along the side of the stretcher, protecting the floor of the ambulance from the dregs of child birth. In school we had been warned that child birth is a messy procedure. Nick and I joked for a full hour when we cleaned the ambulance after this call; “messy” is an understatement if we ever heard one. As Nick drove to the hospital I coached our patient through the birth. As the baby girl was evicted from her dark, quiet home for the past nine months, I was careful to keep her body below her mother’s hips. I quickly suctioned the baby’s mouth, followed by her nose, before giving her the conventional welcome pat on the bottom. I removed two clamps from the obstetrics kit, and when the venous rope that connected this mother and child stopped pulsating, I placed the clamps two inches apart, and cut right between them. Finally, the baby girl was swaddled in fresh linens and handed over to her eager young mother. It isn’t very often that a patient or an E.M.T. can be seen smiling in the back of an ambulance, but many aspects of this emergency call could be considered unconventional. How many people can reminisce about a time when four people under the age of 20 worked to bring this baby into the world?
The nursing staff at the local hospital expected our arrival and assisted us immediately when we paraded through the automatic door. Other patients in the emergency room stared, and trustworthy people in scrubs whispered subtly behind their clipboards. It appeared that the thought of two teenage parents potentially raising a child proved to be too much for the staff and clientele of Valley Hospital. The defiant stares and whispers of bystanders were completely ignored by the courageous young couple who relished in the birth of their beautiful daughter. Yes, this young woman was only 16 years old, but does her age necessarily make her incapable of raising a child? In the years from 1940 to 1960, America experienced its highest surge of teenage birth rates. Kriste Lindenmeyer, a Professor of History at the University of Maryland, regards this as one of the most fertile times in history, during which "one-third of American females had their first child before reaching age twenty” (Lindenmeyer, par 6). This was a time when young girls were expected to settle down with a man and begin their family. In the years following 1960, the teen birth rate began to drop due to advanced educational opportunities and careers for women. Some women chose to shed their old lifestyle for the opportunity to experience new things, but for others, the call of motherhood was too overpowering to leave behind. For the young couple I helped, their willingness to go through with the pregnancy proved that it was something they wanted to do. With the proper education and assistance, this couple could easily be prepared to raise their newborn child. They may not appear to be the ideal candidate for parenthood, but in comparison, Nick and I did not appear to be the most fit candidates to deliver a baby. It is our education that made the difference in this situation, and it is education that will distinguish young couples as poorly behaved adolescents, or competent parents.
So what educational resources are available to young couples who find themselves in the midst of teen parenthood? After much research, the answer looks bleak. A publication of the Institute for American Values concurs that “...most teen pregnancy initiatives concentrate almost exclusively on how teens should behave before they get pregnant…But once a girl or young woman is actually expecting a child, adult guidance from the larger community, particularly regarding marriage and adoption, frequently disappears. (Gallagher, par 54). It appears that America’s unwillingness to provide adequate education to teen parents is the very reason why teens are laced with the stigma of being unfit to raise a child. The education that we are providing to teenagers is ineffective at best and inadequate at worst. Our leaders must make changes to the current federally-funded sexual education and health programs that exist in public schools. Congress conducted a study in 2007 which found that “federally-funded abstinence-only programs have no beneficial impact on young people’s sexual behavior. (“Facts on American…”). So why do our leaders insist upon using abstinence-only programs to solve the growing issue of teen pregnancy? The fact is: teenage pregnancy is on the rise, and our current system needs fine-tuning. If teens are getting pregnant, and they are getting pregnant, then it is our responsibility to educate them properly, and arm them with knowledge that will benefit them in their current situation. Chastising teens for engaging in pre-marital sex would be redundant because the deed has been done. Although it is difficult, now is the time to accept that the pregnancy is real, and that teens deserve to know all of the options that are available to them. Adoption and abortion are not the only paths that teen parents can take, though most policy-makers prefer to believe that the less-informed teens are, the better off they will be.
The most interesting part of this story is the fact that no matter whom I tell their first reaction is always: “You’re 18 and you delivered a baby?” Naturally I always receive questions about being nervous, not feeling prepared, or wishing that paramedics had arrived and let me off the hook. The fact that people judge the situation based on age alone is what surprises me the most. Yes, I am only 18, and I would not say that I have extensive worldly knowledge or experience, but I am educated. I chose to give up my summer vacation to attend E.M.T. school for 120 hours of instruction, and that decision armed with the knowledge to handle a great variety of emergency situations. From my experience, patients certainly do not care about the age of the people helping them, as long as they receive the proper emergency help they need from trained individuals. At first glance I may not appear to be the ideal candidate to have autonomy of judgment in an emergency situation, but my extensive training and proficient skills say otherwise. It is proper education and my eagerness to learn that outfit me to do what I do. Nobody can deny the power that comes with knowledge, so what gives anyone the right to deny knowledge to those that deserve it?
Works Cited
“Facts on American Teens' Sexual and Reproductive Health” Guttmacher Institute. Jan 2011. Web. 7 May 2011.
Gallagher, Maggie. “The Age of Unwed Mothers: Is Teen Pregnancy the Problem?” Institute for American Values. 1999. Web. 6 May 2011.
Lindenmeyer, Kriste. Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society . The Gale Group. 2008. Web. 6 May, 2011.
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