It seemed fitting that we went to St. Pius X High School in Albuquerque with our ultrasound machine, since part of the monies raised to purchase the machine was donated by the student body last year.
We were honored to present our ‘new moms’ and babies in the womb, to the vast majority of the student body on Tuesday, January 27th. Our presentation was for all Theology classes. In fact, all did attend except for four classes who were involved in testing that day, according to Amanda Chavez, Theology teacher and leader of the SOUL Club (Students Organized to Uphold Life). We began with the first class at 8am and went through eight periods ending with the 2:15 class. Some periods had four theology classes attending. The last classes had approximately 125 present to see the baby ultrasound images projected on the big screen. The open space of the fine arts building allowed the students to gather comfortably, while giving the moms privacy with partitioned screens. It also seemed fitting that Carolyn, one of our moms came to show off baby Gabriel (27 weeks in the womb). Carolyn was one of our first moms to make use of the ultrasound at PDL.
Throughout the day we had 10 moms volunteer with ultrasounds and sharing ‘their story’ with the students! Stephen Hedval, certified sonographer, was key to the success of the day. He was able to answer questions from the students and faculty. Stephen said, “It was inspirational to see the reaction in the kid’s faces when they saw the babies moving; even if only one person was affected it was worth the entire day”. Using the ultrasound imagery Stephen was able to show the students the umbilical cord from the baby into the placenta, showing clearly the baby being a separate person, having his/her own separate and never repeatable DNA. Many of the students had never seen an ultrasound of a baby in the womb. I hope and believe that the students will have an everlasting memory of seeing the baby’s eyes, fingers, toes, opening and closing their mouths, swallowing, seeing the difference between baby girls and baby boys, and of course seeing the beating hearts. I came away from the day with a knowing that Jesus was pleased with the work done for his children.
Many thanks and gratitude to Ms. Rothweiler, Mary Frances, the SOUL Club, Claire Meyerson, and all the students that participated at St. Pius X!
-Laura Bowman
