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Home Delivery

New dad takes over for the midwife.

LEONARD POGER

Copy Editor

is

ric Mintz had a lot on his mind on
Sunday, March 27, when his wife
Michelle started having contractions.
The birth of their second child was imminent.
The West Bloomfield couple had planned to
have a midwife, Charlotte Sanchez of Taylor,
help deliver the infant, just as she had done three
years earlier for their first-born, Isaac. But when
Michelle's contractions started, the couple felt
they had some time before Eden Rose would be
born.
Eric, 32, a chiropractor and a Michigan State
University alumnus, began to watch the Spartans
play Kentucky in the NCAA basketball tourna-
ment.
Eden, Michelle and Eric Mintz
Sanchez was at an Easter Sunday family din-
ner in the Downriver area, about an hour's drive
away.
"My insides were flipping out," Eric recalled, while
Michelle, 34, told Sanchez that she didn't have to
Michelle was insisting that he focus on the delivery and
leave immediately for the Mintz home. "We'll call back
not on the progress of the basketball game.
in an hour," she told Sanchez.
From behind the wheel, Sanchez continued to give
But a short time later, the contractions accelerated.
Eric
directions, including having a large salad bowl
Eric phoned Sanchez. But during her drive, events at
•
ready
to catch the placenta.
the Mintz home speeded up. When the baby's head
After
Eden
was
delivered,
"it
was
calm,"
said the new
appeared, Eric called the midwife on her cell phone
father.
and received coaching.

A short time later, grandparents Sidney and
Gail Mintz and Dennis and Myra Potocsky, all
of West Bloomfield, and other relatives arrived
to welcome the baby.
Maintaining his priorities, Eric suggested that
the infant be named Izzo after Tom Izzo, the
MSU coach. "That way, we would have "Isaac
and Izzo," he quipped. Michelle vetoed the
plan.
Eric, a self-employed chiropractor with offices
in West Bloomfield, started on a pre-med - track
while at MSU in the mid-1990s, but didn't
have much training on delivering babies at
home — or anywhere else.
He switched to chiropractic after a practioner
helped him get rid of allergy and asthma prob-
lems.
"I wanted to learn more about the chiroprac-
tic field." he said. "I liked the natural healing
philosophy." Home births are common among
families who are chiropractic patients, he said.
The couple had planned to deliver Isaac three years
ago at Providence Hospital's birthing center in
Southfield. But when the hospital closed the center
midway through Michelle's pregnancy, the couple
began talking about home delivery
Michelle initially resisted the idea. But Eric doesn't
like hospitals. "Birth is a natural process. Hospitals
consider it a medical condition," he said. ❑

411111•1111M1111B1.1111111111111

May 26
Stacey (Goodman)
Bernson and Joseph
Bernson of Wolverine
Lake are happy to
announce with much
love the birth of their
son, Samuel Bruce.
Celebrating Sam's
Bernson
birth are his grand-
parents Charlotte
Schreier Bernson of Southfield,
Linda and Alan Bernson of Boynton
Beach, Fla., and Marlene and
Harvey Goodman of Farmington
Hills. Also welcoming Sam with
much love are great-grandparents
Edith Goodman and Esther and
Nathan Katz of West Bloomfield.
Sam is named in loving memory of
his great-grandfathers Samuel
Goodman and Samuel Schreier and
Joe's brother Bruce.

May 11
Anessa (Owen) and David Kramer
of Bloomfield Hills announce with
love the arrival of their son, Max
Harrison. Welcoming Max home is
big brother Sam, 2. Sharing in their
happiness are proud grandparents
Zina and Michael Kramer of
Bloomfield Hills, Jannette and
Kenneth Hockenberry, and Brenda
and Randy Owen. Also sharing in
the excitement is great-grandmother
Bernice Kramer of Bloomfield Hills.
Max is named in loving memory of
his paternal great-grandfathers
Hyman Kramer and Harold Perlman.

Dec. 6
Susan (Widenbaum)
and Lance Vainik of
Franklin are thrilled
to announce and wel-
come with love the
birth of their little

Vainik

princess, Grace Elizabeth.
Welcoming Grace home with lots of
hugs and kisses are excited big
brothers Trevor Fulton, 5, and
Hunter-Oliver, 2 1 /2 . Sharing in the
joy are proud grandparents Ronna
and Victor Widenbaum of San
Ramon, Calif., formerly of
Southfield; Sallee and Philip Vainik
of West Bloomfield; and Rosalyn
Slater of West Bloomfield. Grace is
named in honor and in loving mem-
ory of her much missed maternal
great-uncle Saul Leff.

Carly Nicole Cykiert was called to
the Torah as a bat mitzvah Saturday,
June 11, at Congregation Beth
Ahm. She is the daughter of Stacy
and Andrew and the sister of Arica.
Her grandparents are Shirley Cykiert
and Stephen and Cecilia Brill. She is
also the granddaughter of the late
Walter Cykiert. She is the great-

granddaughter of
Morris and Sarah
Galer.
Carly is an
honor student at
0. E. Dunckel
Middle School in
Farmington Hills.
For mitzvah proj-
ects, she partici-
pated in the L'Dor v'Dor program at
Hillel Day School, danced at the
Fleishman Residence in West
Bloomfield and worked at Yad Ezra
in Berkley. She also organized a
fund-raiser to donate money to the
Leukemia Research Foundation.

Abigail Anne Levitsky of
Birmingham will become a bat mitz-
vah at Temple Beth El Saturday,
June 25. She is the daughter of Sara

B'NAI MITZVAH on page 70

6/23

2005

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