Background - Obstetrics

Why We All Should Be Obstetricians!

I am an obstetrician (MLH). Most of you probably don’t know that the root word for “obstetrics” is from the Latin obstare that means "to stand by". Most of the time, my job is “to stand by” while others do the hard work of delivering the baby! It is usually a time of great joy, but can also be a time of great loss and suffering.
In 1997, I had the opportunity to practice obstetrics at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya, Africa. Tenwek is a mission hospital whose mission statement is “We treat. Jesus heals”. For many reasons, the practice of obstetrics in Kenya was the most difficult I had been asked to perform.
In that setting, the reality of healing and suffering was more apparent to me as was the power of prayer. Before each surgical procedure, the operating room personal with the patient awake would stop to pray. An individual that spoke the language of the patient would offer the prayer. Although I never completely understood the content of the prayer, I would usually hear a reference to “Daktari” and “Bwana Yesu” and came to understand a partnership that existed between the promises of Jesus’s healing and being present as a “Jesus Agent” to the patient’s at Tenwek.
More recently, a 39 year old delivered her only, very, premature infant who lived for one day. The mother and her family told me with joy how much the care of the many providers had meant to them.[1] They believed that God was in charge. I left the patient’s room and had seen and felt God’s healing presence.
Whether in Kenya or North Carolina, we are all called to stand by/with those who suffer in confidence that Jesus is present in both the suffering and the healing. In that sense, we are all called to be “obstetricians” – “standing by” as agents and recipients of God’s healing and presence to a suffering world.



[1] Price S, Lake M, Breen G, Carson G, Quinn C, O'Connor T. The spiritual experience of high-risk pregnancy. JOGNN: Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing. January 2007;36(1):63-70.