Rose's Cantina

Twenty-six minutes. That's how long it takes to get a hot dog at a chip truck, or to exchange a sweater at Winner's. And that's how long it took my newest granddaughter to pop into this world, after giving her mother nothing but trouble for the last four months. One minute Marissa's cervix was a centimetre and the next, Kennedy Rose was shooting out of her womb like a torpedo. No time, not even for the good drugs. It was the Kennedy Express. The docs called it a Precipitous Delivery, and it only happens in about 2 percent of deliveries. For this "express delivery" to occur, there has to be a perfect storm of genetic and physical factors: an above-average "pelvic outlet" a well-aligned pelvis, pubic bone and birth canal an unusually small baby a well positioned baby a female relative who also experienced fast labors. I had to think on the last one. Then I recalled that my mother Vera gave birth to my brother Gary i...