Putting aside his politics for a moment, I think most of us are capable of agreeing that Congressman Bobby Jindal has accomplished several things which would make any brown parent gloat; a quondam Rhodes Scholar, he was appointed Secretary of Louisiana’s Department of Health before serving as President of the University of Louisiana. Later, he was an Assistant Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Just one of those titles would make my family faint with joy, but I happen to think his latest accomplishment is the coolest of them all (via CNN):
Rep. Bobby Jindal barely had time to call 911 when his wife woke with labor pains Tuesday. Minutes later, he helped deliver his own son.
Slade Ryan Jindal arrived before the ambulance did at about 3:25 a.m. Jindal, coached over the phone by a nurse at the doctor’s office, put the baby in the arms of his wife, Supriya, and tied off the umbilical cord with a shoestring.Dr. Bobby Jindal? It almost happened— according to his official bio, he “turned down admissions to medical and law schools at both Harvard and Yale.” On a more serious note, it’s probable that this unexpected turn in Supriya Jindal’s pregnancy was extra-worrisome, beyond the obvious not-in-a-hospital angle. The Jindals already had two children, Selia who is four and Shaan, who is two. Shaan was born with two holes in his heart, requiring open heart surgery soon after his birth. Due to her son’s medical issues, the Congressman’s wife was being watched closely in the days before her delivery.
Supriya Jindal had been to the hospital twice in the last week with pains thought to be contractions, her husband said. She was at the doctor’s office as recently as Monday and was told there were no signs the baby would be coming as soon as it did, he said.
Mother and baby were resting comfortably Tuesday at a nearby hospital.
“We were very fortunate. There were no complications,” said Bobby Jindal, 35.
Two days early and weighing a healthy eight pounds, Slade Jindal entered the world on a very special day. His older siblings were typically oblivious (when my little sister was born, I looked at her for four seconds before requesting Baskin Robbins):
Slade’s 4-year-old sister, Selia, and 2-year-old brother, Shaan, were at the house and slept through the birth, Jindal spokesman Trey Williams said.
Williams said Jindal had dreamed of becoming a doctor: “He kind of got to play that role today.”
I’ll admit it— I’m more affected by this story than I would have predicted; I think it’s because my best friend had a less-than-easy pregnancy which ended in an emergency C-section, and my new nephew just spent his first weeks in the hospital, so these days I’m extra thankful and happy for others who are in similar situations. Congratulations, Congressman. And props for picking something as interesting as Slade (while remaining firmly ensconced in alliterative desi naming conventions).
