Sixty-seven years ago an orderly excitedly informed me, as he wheeled me down the hall at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, N.J., that some woman had just had natural childbirth. My knees were still shaking from the effort as I told him, “That woman was me.” I had planned it that way after reading about a new technique developed by a French obstetrician named Fernand Lamaze, which included breathing, movement, and massage, which helped with relaxation and pain management. 

We have since read that on the 90th anniversary of the opening of Holy Name Hospital, a man wrote to a newspaper that he was the first baby born there by natural childbirth. He and my daughter were among the first born there by natural childbirth. 

When they came to me to ask what my baby’s name was I told them I hadn’t picked one yet. I loved unusual names but somehow I wound up with a Mike, a Jim, and a Pat. When my husband, Jim, was driving to the hospital to visit me, he heard the song, “Patricia”, which was one of the names we had talked about so that’s how Patricia got her name – Patricia Marie. Three-year old, Michael, couldn’t say Patricia and that’s how she got her nickname, Teish.