Doctor sees new life daily

"You know delivering babies is magic. Even at 3 a.m. when you're tired there's a palpable sense of excitement," she said.

Dyer, 46, lives a quarter mile from her office on El Camino Real across from the Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame, where she works about 50 hours a week and is on call most nights.

"One of my favorite things to do is to watch the dads. Men are distant from the whole thing until they look down at their own babies," she said. "It's just a really magical moment. You want to capture it, you want to look at that expression of joy and amazement."

It wasn't always like that. Fathers once waited outside the delivery rooms, anxiously pacing in the hall.

Now many fathers, same-sex partners and immediate family are often in the room and involved.

Dyer recommends Lamaze, a philosophy that provides direction for women as they prepare to give birth and become mothers. Pain acts as a cue in labor for women to respond to movement by changing positions and moaning, a spokeswoman for Lamaze International said. Movements help the baby rotate and descend through the pelvis.

"We usually encourage them and rub their back. It's more about breathing and letting go," she said.

Many women have been drawn to giving birth at home with midwives because it is more comfortable. In response, hospitals are becoming more like home.

Mills-Peninsula Medical Center refurbished its 15 delivery rooms seven years ago to include fully-adjustable beds, showers, a rocking chair and a fold-out sofa for family. Sophisticated baby-monitoring equipment is hidden behind a cloth.

The center is busy this month, employees said, with up to eight babies in an eight-hour shift being delivered. Labor can last from a few hours to a few days, making the room's comfort important.

Dyer knows from experience, having given birth to two boys with her partners assisting the deliveries. She gained a greater empathy for postpartum depression, or the anxious sadness that stays with many women after giving birth, she said.

Like many Peninsula women, Dyer chose to wait to age 38 to have her first child because her career and hectic medical residency came first.

"I think women are more independent," she said. "The higher the education, the more the delay."

She described the discomfort of birth as, "the worst pain you've ever had, times 100."

About 60 to 70 percent of women she sees want a natural birth, but change their mind — some at the last minute.

Others are given epidurals that numb the waist down and watch television while giving birth, Dyer said.

She opposes home birth despite the contention that midwives are trained to spot problems early and can provide life-saving techniques like resuscitation. Hospitals, she said, offer a better safety net because a baby can die in minutes if something goes wrong.

"You're rolling the dice with your baby," she said of homebirths. "They think it's a natural thing, well so is bleeding to death."

Stephen Baxter can be reached by e-mail at stephen@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 109. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.

Caption:

Dr. Lisa Dyer measures Annelise Kimmey, 21, who is due to give birth Feb. 26.