by Travis Mateer

Today while taking a shower I was brought to tears listening to how our insane medical/industrial complex is screwing with the first moments of life for parents and newborn babies. The images of a mom and her baby meeting outside the womb for the first time through a PLASTIC SHEET was too much for me to take, for VERY personal reasons, which I will now share.

Five years ago today I became a dad for the third time when my little girl entered this world about 24 hours premature and with slightly lower than normal oxygen levels. This meant my wife had to be separated from our newborn baby while she recovered from the C-section surgery.

One of the greatest gifts of my life happened next. The charge nurse allowed me to hold my little girl, skin to skin, for the first moments of her life. I’m crying just writing this, thinking about that moment and the song I sang her.

Below is an audio recording of my daughter and I doing a mini-podcast episode. And below that is a spoken-word version of the song I sang her as I welcomed her to this world.

This is why I fight.