The Wonder in the Pasture: An 18-Year-Old’s Birth and Its Unforeseen Turns
On the side of a road outside the capital-Philippine city of Tacloban, next to a muddy field, 18-year-old Ryan Bacate is an epic. Emily Pesado, Bacate’s pregnant girlfriend who is also 18 years old, is on the ground and preparing to give birth three miles from the closest clinic in the municipality of Tolosa.
Bacate and Pesado were on their motorbike en route to the clinic after she had gone into labor. A man who was also on a motorcycle passed by and hurried to Tolosa to retrieve Norina Malate. She found the baby crowning when she arrived. Malate urged Pesado to push as the curious crowd gathered around her. Malate urged Pesado to breathe deeply.
Malate clenched her scissors with a steady hand, and after the baby was born, she cut the umbilical cord. Pesado and her baby, a male, were assisted by her baby’s godmother, who was experienced in helping deliver babies, and they were loaded onto a pickup vehicle that would transport them to the Tolosa clinic.
The extraordinary delivery was documented by photographer Lynsey Addario while she was working on an assignment for Save the Children, which is assisting in the reconstruction of the healthcare system in Haiyan-affected areas.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Addario. “It was such a community effort. When you see a baby born like that, and it’s fine, you’ve got to think: It’s kind of miraculous.”
