For Elderly Midwife, Delivering Babies Never Gets Old
"It would be horrible if I had to do this and stay up all night, and didn't love what I do," she says.
'A Wonder To Behold'
It's just past daybreak at the hospital's birth center, and Sparling has been here since 4 a.m. with patient Amanda Trujillo, who is about to deliver her third baby. It's her second with Sparling as her midwife. The two are comfortable with each other. The atmosphere is relaxed. Sparling tells Trujillo to just be patient a little while longer.
When Sparling leaves Amanda and goes out to the nurses' station in the birth center, her spiky white hair sets her apart from her younger colleagues. Nurse Kathy Clarkson makes a point of telling her she was missed during her brief semi-retirement.
"We're glad that you're back working again, Dian," Clarkson says. "When you retired, we were all crying."
Nurse Julie Christin says that as a midwife, Sparling works more closely with women in labor than do most MDs.
"Physicians rely on us to do a lot of the labor support. But Dian spends a lot of time with her patients when they're in labor. I like that because then she's involved and can make decisions quicker, and does what the patient want to do, which is good." Christin says.
Sparling is "in tune with them emotionally as well as physically," Clarkson says.
And then it's time for Sparling to get back in tune with Trujillo, who's ready to start pushing. Her husband, Isaiah, supports one leg, and delivery nurse Keri Ferguson supports the other.
“ It would be horrible if I had to do this and stay up all night and I didn't love what I do.