My first brush with an incubator was probably around the fourth grade, in science class. I can still see the picture from the textbook, vividly. Rows of cracking eggs, some all the way open, with baby wet-headed chickens poking out. It gave me a whole new awareness. Especially where eggs were concerned.
We got our eggs from a “Dunkard” lady in the “country.” She pulled into our driveway each week, in her dark-colored sedan. She would unlock her truck and pull out our trays of eggs, a big stack of them. We had a special place on the lowest shelf of our refrigerator for the egg delivery. Our egg-eating clan. Who knew about those baby chicks?
Back to incubators. I’m not sure when I found out they used them for human babies too. The ones who are born too sickly to make it on their own. A lot of babies are born this way, I’ve found out. The devices are pretty spiffy. The “neonatal incubator” is a rigid box-like enclosure. It sort of looks like some huge, fancy, Tupperware dish. You just pop the baby in there, and the infant can be kept in a controlled environment for observation and care. Incubators have a lot of gizmos too. They may include a heater, a fan, a container for water to add humidity, a valve through which oxygen may be added, and access ports for nursing care. Those are the hand things.
We didn’t always have baby incubators though. Today’s date, September 7, is the anniversary of the first child being placed in an incubator. The year was 1888 and her name was Edith Eleanor McLean. She was in the care of the State Emigrant Hospital on Ward’s Island, New York. At birth, she weighed but 2 pounds and 7 ounces.
Edith and her mother were treated at the new hospital for immigrants. It was built some 20 years earlier, in 1864. (As mentioned, the hospital was called the State Emigrant Hospital. The reason for this was that they felt that the new arrivals from other countries were not yet officially immigrants to the U.S.). I find it interesting that they wanted to “test out” this new technology there. Go figure.
The doctor in charge was one, Dr. William Champion Deming. He was the first guy in the United States to try out this advancement. France was way ahead of the game. They started using the incubators some 30 years earlier. Apparently, the French doctors were desperate to save premature babies. The birth rate in France had fallen off steeply after the Napoleonic Wars. Which is another story, for another day.
Back in the U.S., Dr. Deming knew of their work and had an incubator constructed for his ward. Tiny Edith was the first to go in. The thing was equipped with a heated with a 15-gallon reservoir of warm water.
I’ve searched around briefly for more information about the baby. But, at that point, Edith McLean disappears from history. Hopefully, she survived.
I thought it appropriate, on Labor Day, when so many women have experienced the hardest kind of work there is, giving birth to a bowling ball, they rearing the thing for the next few decades.
I also thought it fitting because of the times we are in. Troubled times. A pandemic, racial injustices, good and ongoing protests, bad rioting, and a nation torn in two because of differences in opinion. It has been hard on all of us. The resulting effects can make us feel weak, small, and vulnerable. While we can’t get into a physical incubator, we can find a space for our mental and spiritual care. I think it is important, that each day, we do things to allow for the nurturing of our inner selves, our psyche, our life force. I hope each of you will take time to do something today, that makes you feel good, that nourishes you, that fills your gills with good oxygen. Breathe in good life. Eat a cookie.
=========
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.”
― Bill Watterson
=======
“But Piglet is so small that he slips into a pocket, where it is very comfortable to feel him when you are not quite sure whether twice seven is twelve or twenty-two.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
=========
“A tiger only needs three things to be comfortable. Lots of food, sleep, and…actually, no it’s just those two things.”
― Colleen Houck
=========
