The birth of Elizabeth Sage Aswell, a 9-pound, 1-ounce girl, breaks Dr. Bruce Shephard's streak of boys.
By BILL VARIAN
Published March 26, 2004
[Times photo: John Pendygraft]
Dr. Bruce Shephard holds 1-hour-old Elizabeth Sage Aswell on Thursday. She broke his streak for male deliveries: 15 in a row.
TAMPA - Baby doctor Bruce Shephard was working on his sixth circumcision of the day Thursday when a thought occurred to him.
He couldn't remember the last time he had delivered a girl.
There was a boy that morning. As a matter of fact, all he could remember was boys.
So Dr. Shephard, 59, got his office bookkeeper, JoAnn Stephenson, to do some checking.
"I thought six or seven boys in a row would be something I'd want to keep a record of," Dr. Shephard said. "I like baseball. And baseball and obstetrics lend themselves to keeping records."
It turns out his streak as of Thursday morning stood at 15 baby boys delivered in a row, dating to March 11.
The odds of that happening: 1 in 32,000, he said.
With an induced birth scheduled for the afternoon, Dr. Shephard had the chance to extend the streak.
But Elizabeth Sage Aswell would have none of that.
She came into the world at 4:56 p.m. Thursday at St. Joseph's Women's Hospital to parents Tiffany Aswell, 25, and Luis Bonilla, 24, of Town 'N Country. She was two weeks ahead of her expected April 6 due date.
"None too soon for a 9-pound baby," said Dr. Shephard.
Make that 9 pounds 1 ounce, and 21 inches, with bright, alert eyes and a set of lungs that will have no trouble getting her parents' attention. It's the couple's first baby.
Mom's reaction an hour later to news of her daughter's trend-busting arrival.
"Pretty cool."
In walked Dad, a few minutes later. His thoughts?
"That's pretty cool," he said. "It's like hitting the ground running."
A couple of other bits of coincidence: Dr. Shephard's first daughter is named Elizabeth; and 23 years ago he delivered Laurissa Alvarez, who is now Tiffany's best friend and was present for the delivery.
Actually, Mom and Dad were pretty sure that little Sage, as they plan to call her, was going to be a girl. They had had a sonogram.
"Sonograms are about 85 percent accurate, so there's always that caveat," said Dr. Shephard, without sounding like he was rooting one way or the other.
"If it was a boy, he was going to have to get used to a lot of pink, frilly stuff," said Tiffany's mother, Pam Aswell.
Dr. Shephard has been delivering babies for 29 years.
He should close in on his 5,000th birth by September.
He's made a few notations along the way, but nothing like this.
There was a 12-pound baby that arrived naturally and a 1-pound sprite that arrived completely healthy. When he began his career, in Miami, there were days when he had a dozen deliveries.
"Obstetrics is a happy and joyful field," he said. "So it's fun to keep records like that."
