A recent invitation to help with a priesthood blessing provided a full-circle moment and an opportunity to again acknowledge the power and impacts of such blessings.
Our youngest son, Braden, asked me to assist him in giving his wife, McKenna, a priesthood blessing the evening before she was scheduled to start labor and delivery of their first child. It was about 10 days before the projected due date, and while there were no major complications, her doctor said it was in the baby’s best interests and safety to induce the delivery the next day.
In the blessing of comfort, counsel and assurance, Braden spoke words of gratitude and hoped-for protections as he acknowledged the preparations and anticipations for their daughter’s arrival, as well as the role of mortal life in the Father’s plan of happiness.
The blessing reminded me of one I gave my wife, Cheryl, 29 years before, just prior to Braden’s birth. After Braden had blessed McKenna, Cheryl and I recited our experience to them, out of reverence and thankfulness.
In the days preceding Braden’s birth, Cheryl was hopeful our three older children could be with us at the hospital — both pre- and post-delivery — for an enhanced family bonding experience. Mindful of that hope during the priesthood blessing, I prayed a phrase — “that all the people who need to be there would be there” — and then thought how clunky that sounded.
The older siblings were indeed with Cheryl and me that morning in the hospital as she progressed through labor. During a routine status check, the attending nurse suddenly unplugged monitors, tossed medical printouts next to Cheryl and quickly pushed the wheeled hospital bed out the door and down the hall. She commanded me to follow and put on head and shoe coverings as we entered the stark-white operating room where numerous staffers were rapidly setting up for what would be an emergency cesarean-section delivery.
As Cheryl was prepped with the necessary local anesthesia and antiseptics, her obstetrician hurried in. He reached for the scalpel, and in practically the same motion, he quickly made the first incisions. He soon lifted out a bluish, silent, motionless baby and passed him off to a neonatal resuscitation specialist, who rushed off to an adjoining room.
Cheryl had suffered an abruption of the placenta, which was depriving the baby of oxygen. Compounding the breathing crisis, he had aspirated substantial amounts of blood and fluid during the C-section delivery.
Newborns are given an Apgar rating, a combined score of 0 to 10 in five categories — appearance (skin tone or color), pulse, grimace (reflex), activity and respiration. A normal score ranges from 7 to 9. Braden scored a 1, with a faint heartbeat detected.
I alternated between standing by Cheryl’s bed — comforting and reassuring her as she received a much-needed blood transfusion — and watching the neonatal specialist revive our son.
Braden spent a week in the newborn intensive care unit; at 10 pounds and 5 ounces, he seemed out of place with the premature infants in the NICU.
In his visit to Cheryl the next day, the doctor said, “I don’t know how you Latter-day Saints celebrate,” he said of the miraculous birth and preservation of two lives, then mentioning what he and others of his faith would do.
Recounting for us the circumstances surrounding the previous day, he told Cheryl she was attended to by the hospital’s most experienced maternity nurse, who noticed warning signs and reacted promptly and properly. He noted the neonatal specialists were all present and not needed elsewhere at that time. And he spoke of his own impression, after getting the call, to go straight to the delivery, rather than make his usual stop at a break room for a soft drink and to wait to see how things progressed.
“It was like everybody who was supposed to be there was there at that moment,” he said.
Cheryl and I looked at each other, hearing that phrase spoken nearly word for word as it was in her blessing. And our “celebration”? We immediately felt awash with feelings of gratitude, reassurance and confirmation for the Lord’s blessings and again later in our prayers.
We had experienced what President Russell M. Nelson taught to priesthood holders in April 2018 general conference: “Brethren, we hold the holy priesthood of God. We have His authority to bless His people. Just think of the remarkable assurance the Lord gave us when He said, ‘Whomsoever you bless I will bless’ (Doctrine and Covenants 132:47). It is our privilege to act in the name of Jesus Christ to bless God’s children according to His will for them.”
A postscript: Sydney Joann Taylor arrived Wednesday night, July 10, with no complications and plenty of family love.
— Scott Taylor is managing editor of Church News
