Another 4 am birth, another 6 o'clock exit from the nursing home, another sun rising over Laventille, another day beginning. The last time I did this, it was another boy child, now sleeping at home in Caracas with his mother, who is from Spain.This boy will live and grow up in another "Spain," Port-of-Spain, and, like his grandfather did and now his father, perhaps call me early one morning to see his newborn baby. Working in a small island, where there is scarce opportunity and often, even scarcer desire for movement, gives one the splendid opportunity to see grow not only the children of children once cared for, but eventually, if I live long enough, the grandchildren of those first patients. Some of the "older" obstetricians are beginning to talk about the same thing.
Why do so many babies come between midnight and morning? Births do not occur uniformly throughout the 24 hours. Traditional nursing shifts run from 7 am to 3 pm, from 3 to 10 pm and 10 pm to 7 am. Slightly more births occur during the midnight-to-morning shift than during any of the other two shifts.