Photo provided by Emily Dial.
A heartwarming story picked up by the New York Post, Fox News, MSN and Yahoo, among others, features a Frontier Nursing University (FNU) midwifery alumnus delivering her own child via cesarean section.
On March 11, 2018, Emily Dial, CNM, who graduated from FNU’s women’s health care nurse practitioner program in 2010 and the nurse-midwife program in 2011, scrubbed in for surgery as she was being prepared for her third child’s C-section delivery. This is a process Dial has done over 700 times in her eight years of advanced practice midwifery – though every other time, she was getting ready to assist in another mother’s birth.
After the abdominal incision was made, two obstetricians guided Emily’s hands to the baby. She pulled the child from her own abdomen and searched to learn its gender for the first time – a healthy baby girl!
“The excitement in that room from everyone involved was palpable,” Dial said. “Not a dry eye in the room.”
Dial chose to be involved in her own delivery because she wanted to experience birth as an active participant and not simply as a spectator. In the births of her first two children, she played more hands-off roles. Even more than the intimacy that clear drapes and skin to skin time provide in birth experiences for mothers, with this delivery Dial wanted to participate in the ultimate birth experience by guiding her own baby out, if the conditions were right.
Dial had known from the time she was a young girl that she was called to midwifery. She chose to continue her midwifery education after her graduation from FNU because the institution is founded on values that center around the family, with empowering women and supporting the laboring mother at its heart.
“Mary Breckinridge had a vision and the more I dove into FNU’s history, the more I knew it was the place I could grow my midwifery roots,” Dial said.
Her goal through a career as a certified nurse-midwife is to follow moms in their motherhood journeys and ultimately be their primary labor and delivery support person. For Dial, midwifery encompasses care for women through the lifespan. Being present during that pivotal moment in their lives is her driving force.
“FNU prepared me for that moment,” Dial said. “The support of a mom during this important moment in her life is one of the best services a midwife can offer.”
Dial’s amazing birth story was reported on by national news conglomerates and local affiliates, as well as family/motherhood media outlets like LoveWhatMatters and CafeMom. The photos her photographer posted on Facebook have garnered 1.5k likes and been shared nearly 1,000 times.
Though she never ever imagined her birth story would go viral, Dial is using this platform to share an important message: “I hope it offers moms a chance to embrace whatever their experience may be.” Whether C-section or vaginal delivery, Dial says, “Live satisfyingly in that moment!”
And for midwives: “Support women, always. Don’t just stand back and watch. Be WITH WOMEN.”
To see the full news article, go here.
