_Sonia_
HOLLIMON-STOVALL
Through rain, snow... birth
Column comes through, even when having baby
_I_SL^m_I
5:45 a.m. — What started out as
the millionth trip to the bathroom
ended up being my first real stay in a
hospital.
How can I describe a contraction?
In the Hopi culture, they used to tie a
leather thong to a man’s testicles, so
his wife could pull it when she had a
contraction—how’s that for visual
imagery?
I have to admit, I was usually half
asleep in Lamaze class, so I wasn’t
too sure about my ability to effec
tively put all that heavy breathing to
good use.
I have been known to pull a few
pranks in my time, so when I called
my friend Tracie and told her get out
of bed, she didn’t call back for a
2ood 20 minutes. Bum.
Actually, my aunt is writing this
sitting on the toilet in her bathroom
—I’m in the shower dealing with
hour number five of contractions.
She’s writing pretty fast because I
only have between four and six
minutes before the next contraction.
When you’re in labor, all sense of
modesty pretty much falls away
(good one, huh?) and you couldn’t
really care less. „
Oh, wait—contraction.
OK. Back to the column.
During my contractions I visualize
myself as ascending a slide, and
when it hurts the most, I’m at the top
of the slide, and then I descend. It
really works—most of the time. The
only time I have problems is when I
don’t get on the slide fast enough.
After months of preparation, and
- taking things in and out of the
suitcase, the big day has come and I
still only have four things in there —
all of which are clothes for the baby.
My aunt is complaining that the
bathroom has become a sauna and
it’s hard to write in pencil when
sweat is dripping from your fore
head.
I know that my mom is on her
way, breaking the sound barrier, no
doubt, terrorizing motorists. She
usually bums rubber just because she
has a lead foot, but I think that today
we’ll be lucky if the wheels touch the
ground.
Contraction.
It’s strange when the muse strikes,
isn’t it?
Oddly enough, the cat, whom I
despise, seems strangely concerned
about me. He’s been crying to get
into the bathroom, and followed me
around all morning.
Oh yeah — I’m in labor.
My first reaction this morning was
to whip out my sheet — “Signs of
Labor” — that has been on the
fridge. When I was pretty sure, I
called my doula—I’ll explain what
that is later on.
Contraction. Talk about your
working mothers.
My management professor was
nice enough to give me an extension
on a project that’s due today — at
least now he’ll know how bad I
REALLY needed it.
Oh man! And I really do mean —
MAN!
It may be hard to believe that I am
really dictating this while in labor,
but I believe that if you don’t get
things down as soon as possible
while experiencing something, you
lose part of the uniqueness of what’s
happening. And God knows this will
be a unique experience.
The people I’ve assembled to help
me through this are definitely the
“A” team of labor support. Here’s the
rundown:
Team captain — James Maly,
M.D.—quickly talked me out of an
underwater birth. Kind of looks like
Michael J. Fox, but older. If anyone
can imagine Michael J. Fox looking
any older.
Sandy: Mother and soon-to-be
granma—credentials: an ex-nun
who has four kids and teaches at
Boys Town.
Bunny: Five kids, a cat, a bird and
a fish. Overqualified.
Anya: My Lamaze coach — MIA.
She went to D.C. to meet the
physical therapist working with
President Clinton. How does he rate?
Vicki: Doula. Sort of like a cross
between a professional Lamaze
coach, but a little less than a mid
wife. I just hired her yesterday —
talk about timing.
1:30 p.m. Well, at three minutes
apart, it’s time to head for St. E’s.
More later.
6:08 p.m. Welcome to the world,
my sweetheart. Of all the things I had
imagined, I never thought your hair
would be so straight or that you
would have so much of it.
At 8 pounds and 2114 inches, you
were definitely my biggest challenge
to date.
The thing they don t tell you in
Lamaze is that it’s the pushing that
really is going to suck, and that can
take so long. People kept saying—
“I can see her hair — wow!” So I
was thinking, “Great! This kid will
be here any minute and I’ll be done
by 3 pan.!”
Right.
I did get the chance to lounge in
the Jacuzzi for a while, and that was
pretty cool, but it’s not the same as
when you’re in the Jacuzzi at say, the
Hilton.
I had a half dosage of the lowest
type of drug you can get, just to “take
the edge off of the contractions.” Let
me tell you those edges were a lot
sharper than that drug was.
I was fortunate to have a pretty
drug-free, regular {meaning vaginal)
delivery, especially right before the
snow storm. Tracie, who ended up
being in the delivery room, has
dubbed Samaria “snow baby”
because the storm came right after
she was bom. Kind of a flower in the
snow, I think.
It was hard for me to leave her to
come back to campus, and now that *
she’s here, I can’t imagine how I
used to live without her.
Oh yeah — I used to sleep.
Hollimon-Stovall is a senior
broadcasting major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist
Guest
VIEW
University dividends far-reaching
It has been my pleasure and
privilege to serve on the University
of Nebraska Board of Regents since
1981. Throughout the years, I believe
higher education has responded well
to the changing needs of Nebraska’s
work force in order to help secure
our state’s future economic growth.
As we enter the “information age,” it
is clear that education has an
increasing responsibility and will
play an even greater role to help
ensure that students, workers and
employers have the knowledge
necessary to not only adapt to new
technologies, but to embrace them
and to benefit fully from them.
The university’s ability to be in a
position to serve the state adequately
at this critical time will depend upon
how well we plan for the future and
allocate limited resources. Compet
ing priorities for state funds have put
pressure on the university at pre
cisely the time I believe we should be
investing more in our centers of
technology and knowledge.
If we want the University of
Nebraska to remain an engine of
enterprise, ideas, jobs and economic
growth, we must support it with
HI
It '
appropriate funding. Less than one
third of the university’s budget
comes from state support. Over the
past 10 years, there has been a
noticeable decline in the percentage
of the State General Fund appropri
ated to higher education generally,
and the University of Nebraska,
specifically. In 1986, the/state of
Nebraska appropriated 21.3 percent
of the tax revenue it collected to the
university. Last year, it was 17.6
percent. It is difficult to maintain
quality, let alone develop new areas
of excellence, when state support is
insufficient.
The university has asked the
Nebraska Legislature for a budget
increase of about 5 percent each of
the next two years. These funds
would be used for salaries and
benefits to make sure we continue to
have excellent faculty and staff, new
academic initiatives designed to help
retain our best and brightest students,
expanded honors programs, en
hanced distance learning, new
courses in information science and
technology and our computer
infrastructure.
As a businessman, I know
Nebraskans want to be sure the
goods and services they purchase are
worth the money. There is no doubt
that the University of Nebraska
provides an outstanding return on
Nebraskans’ investment. In terms of
economic impact alone, the univer
sity generates over $3 billion in non
farm economic activity each year—
10 times the amount of tax funds
annually invested in the university.
The university also pays dividends
'in ways other than dollars and cents.
For one thing, we graduate more than
8,000 students each year, a majority
of whom stay in Nebraska in our
teaching, research, extension and
outreach programs.
There is no doubt that our leaders
must balance important priorities in
allocating available state resources.
The decisions made during the next
few months will be crucial to the
long-term well-being of the people of
Nebraska. I believe that if we invest
in our institutions of public higher
education, we will reap the return for
years to come.
John W. Payne is the chairman
of the NU Board of Regents.
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