pregnantIt's a classic sitcom joke -- the woman goes into labor, gets to the hospital, and her doctor or midwife is on vacation.

So she ends up with the latest 2-year-old who's been made a doctor between her legs.

Jokes about the doctor's age ensue, often with the doctor acting like she or he really is 2, huffing and puffing with the mother, or passing out at the sight of a little blood.

Ladies, it's all fun and games until that woman is you.

Because some baby has to be that doctor's (or midwife's) first.

I hate to belittle the good doctor, but if husbands can play catch in the back of cars on the freeway, it can't be that bad, right? At least this person has been to medical school ... and has a staff of experienced nurses at their side.

I'm almost wondering if it would be worse to be on the other side of things. CBS featured a gynecologist recently who is 100 years old and still making rounds at a Georgia hospital. He stopped doing active obstetrics 15 years ago, but he was still 85 at that point!

This is the guy who could have delivered Betty Draper's baby! And told her her smoking was great for soothing that nausea.

I once asked my OB how many babies he had delivered, and he couldn't actually put a number on it. They all sort of blended together by that time, he said, although he always remembers my daughter when I go in to visit (maybe he checks my chart, I don't know -- either way, I adore him for it).

Do you know how many babies your provider has delivered?

 

Image via spaceodissey/Flickr