Tallil airman hears child’s birth Published Nov. 26, 2003 By Staff Sgt. Chris Stagner 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Being in a deployed location is difficult on most servicemembers. That difficulty is only compounded when a wife back home is pregnant.Staff Sgt. Brian Schmied, a survival equipment craftsman assigned to Pope Air Force Base, N.C., was faced with that problem when he arrived here more than 100 days ago.Tallil Air Base and Pope AFB officials worked together to make a difficult time a little easier for Schmied when his wife, Kirsten, gave birth Nov. 21. They ensured he was on the phone and able to communicate with his wife during her labor.“When I left she was barely showing,” Schmied said. “It was tough being here while she was going to the doctor’s appointments and not being able to be there with her.”As difficult as the deployment is for him, it is not easy for his wife either.“It was really lonely at times not having him here to share things with, especially when I went for my scan the day after he left, and when I saw my tummy moving for the first time,” Kirsten said. “It was hard for me to go through it all alone, but it was also hard knowing that he was missing out on so much.”After eight and a half months of pregnancy and more than three months of separation, Brian received a call at work letting him know his daughter was on the way.“(Kirsten) used the spouse morale-call program to call me and let me know her water broke and she was going to the hospital,” he said. “After that, I waited a few hours and then called (the hospital).”At about 2 a.m., Brian received the call he had been waiting for; his wife was going into labor. An hour and a half later, he was able to be involved in the delivery with Kirsten via telephone.Though nothing can replace being together when a child is born, being able to communicate via telephone during the process is definitely better than not being there at all, he said.“I coached her a little. It was awkward because I couldn’t see her facial expressions, I had to go off sound,” Brian said. “When I heard that baby cry … that’s when it really hit me.”“It wasn’t as good as if he'd been here in person, but definitely better than nothing at all,” Kirsten said. “It was really comforting to hear his voice and to know that he was there for me. I could concentrate on what he was saying, which helped to take my mind off the pain to a certain degree.“I pushed the phone away once while I was pushing, but the rest of the time it was really good to talk to Brian,” she said. “I remember him telling me that he loved me, which made me feel like he was there, and it was a big help.”“Actually being able to hear what she was going through made me feel like I was there,” Brian said. “It made me feel like I had a small part in the delivery process.” Both parents said being involved made the birth easier on them.“It was very important to have him involved in the birth, even if it was just by phone,” Kirsten said. “It helped me out to be able to talk to him, and it made me feel better knowing that he was able to experience it, too. It was also really good to be able to hear his reaction to her birth and to hear how happy he was.”“It was good to hear it, instead of hear about it,” Brian said.Both parents said they are doing fine since the birth and have a healthy baby girl who weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces, and was 19.7 inches long at birth.