Hi! My name is Sharon Binkey and in December 2000, I underwent a procedure at Allegheny General Hospital that would change my and my husband's outlook on having children. In anticipation of our fourth child we had kind of rocky journey. Our first two children (both daughter were brought into this world with the very little support of our OB/GYN, but then we had our third child, our first son, greeted into this world by Gretchen Cohen of the Family Nurse Midwives. H was a very lucky baby and so were we; the differences are outstanding with all of the patience on the part Gretchen compare to a Saint.

This has brought me to the story of how we delivered our fourth child, another daughter. With a of our negativity now for a regular OB/GYN, and were so pleased with the care of the midwives, wefinally had to make a very difficult decision to incorporate "both into this delivery". When we four out we were pregnant in May we could not have be happier, but by October things did not seem right. (pregnancies go pretty well except for one caesarean with my second baby which we had no idea was go. to take place until we were already in labor). I had have numerous sonograms because this baby could seem to get comfortable, by the seventh month she had the cord around her neck and could not get head down. Luckily we still had time on our side so we waited to see if our little bundle would get turned down on her own. Unfortunately this did not happen so at one of my later prenatal visits Sandy Mauro told me about the version procedure to see if we might interested. I, of course, was very interested, anything to avoid another unwanted caesarean. My husband was equally for the procedure, watching her go through an operation was hard on him. So we put all the wheels in motion and drove in early on a Friday morning to meet Dr. Thomas. This man was a miracle worker, he had hands of gold. Thomas did a sonogram to confirm that the baby in fact was in breech. He gave us the good news that I was a perfect candidate for the cephalic version. The way to know this is by how pliable the uterus is, if you have ample amniotic fluid, a normal amount of weight gain during pregnancy and a stubborn baby like ours! ! But it was not all her fault, the cord was also holding her back from turning, it was like a big gumband, every time she tried to get head down it would restrict her progress. Now we knew we could have the procedure, so we scheduled it for the next Friday. We were so nervous; the hospital took all the normal precautions, like having us sign papers for an immediate c-section if something should go wrong. This still did not help our anxiety. (even though the risks are very low with version), Gary and I hugged each other and prayed while the nurse gave me the medication to relax my uterus which would help the Doctor to be able to manipulate my ever squirming baby.

When Dr. Thomas entered the room, I could not stop shaking, but his loving touch soon reassured me that all was well. With the help of an assistant and nurse standing watch near by, a sonogram tool held on my belly at all times, the procedure lasted all of 30 seconds. By the time I braced myself and grabbed hold of my husband the only pain was a little pressure as the baby's head bulged out on my right side. Dr. Thomas could see the head and bum and by grabbing both, with the help, of what seemed like a whole bottle of sonogram examining gel, he not only turned our daughter's head down, but in the same movement released the cord around her neck With one last motion he nudged, ever so gently the head into the birth canal, now the rest was up to nature. Eleven days later on a Sunday, after seven hours of labor we met Grace Linda Binkey, weighing in at 6 1bs 9 ozs. If someone would ask me if I would do it this way again, I would say definitely.

A newborn opens a door from God and let Grace pour in. I write this in loving memory of my sister

Linda Lee (Casteel) Hellein.