Today, I delivered a baby.

Each time the mother bore down in labor, she pooped a little. The colors were quite vivid. The stool was a bright yellow-greenish brown compared to the surrounding shades of red blood in various stages of coagulation on baby blue sterile pads. The little monster passed through her multiparous anatomy and entered the world quickly.

I managed its progression out of the perineum and soon the creature came to rest in my arms, where it promptly pooped on my arm. It was a strange kind of poop, thick and sticky like taffy. We call it meconium in medical jargon. Perhaps, we don’t call it shit because, oddly, it doesn’t stink. I’ll never forget watching the baby slowly excrete its tarry stool onto my gowned and gloved forearms.

The smell of fresh blood, drying & clotting blood, and fresh poop lingered in the air as the placenta arrived soon thereafter.

Poo. Baby. Meconium. Placenta.

Delivery. How apropos.