Pregnant ladies, we all need a little something extra to get us through labor. Here's your little something -- completely drug free. A high school basketball coach went into labor in the middle of her team's big tournament.
So that's it, right? She goes and has a baby, team goes on without her? Giving up wasn't in Amber Branson's playbook. The 34-year-old coach of the Lipan High School girls team did the whole labor and delivery thing -- no epidural, no pain meds, we should note -- and then 16 HOURS LATER she was back on the hardwood, giving the girls go get 'ems at the championship game.
Excuse me. I need to sit down. Even I'm tired after reading that. But please, get your printers ready, because I think I could have used this story before I went into the hospital to deliver my daughter!
Branson did have it a little different (I won't say easier, labor is not easy!) than most. Leslie Telese Branson was her third child. She knew what to expect and what to do, and most of the time second (or third) labors go more quickly because the cervix dilates faster and pushing is usually more speedy as well. Recovery will always vary between deliveries, but it can't be discounted that a mom is better acquainted with her post-partum body the third time around.
She knows what has to be done with this new baby (breastfeeding is old hat!), and she knows when she feels well enough to go home. I know a lot of moms who have pushed their doctors for early dismissal because they just couldn't wait to get home to their older kids.
And Branson, of course, had not just seven-year-old Tate and 6-year-old Taylor to get back to but the team -- a whole big squad of kids. As she told NBC:
I'm just thankful that God allowed me to be a part of it, because these girls are special. They are like my children, and I'm just glad He worked it out where I could be at all three events at the same time.
And there was another "birth" out of the whole thing . . . well, a "berth" to be more exact. The Lipan girls secured a spot in the state tournament thanks to their favorite coach.
How soon do you hope to be up and moving after you give birth?
Image via j9sk9s/Flickr