Baby for the Midwife

‘Is she staying here?’ Georgia looked startled and he wondered why.

‘She will do if you do!’ Georgia had more need of Mrs White with Elsa than he did.

‘I’m a big girl. You have to stop looking after me, Max.’

‘You’re my wife,’ he said. In truth, he did very little and would love to do more, but she valued her independence and the other thing, the one he tried not to think about but kept him awake at night, needed time.

‘In name only,’ she said.

Bingo. That was the crux, Max thought, and the devil answered. ‘We could change that.’

She laughed. ‘I’m two years older than you. That would be taking advantage of you.’

‘Yes, please, madam.’They both smiled but Max didn’t feel amused. She really didn’t get it. Probably never would, But now wasn’t the time to push it, even though it would be so easy to lean over and kiss those laughing lips of hers.

Down, boy, he warned himself. ‘Seriously, Georgia. You may be older by year or two, but not in the ways of the world.’ That was what he said. What he thought was, Can’t you see I want all of you and I’m trying to stay away?

‘Anyway,’ he said, ‘my aunt left me an old house overlooking Byron Bay, which she bought when she went through her arty phase. I thought I’d stay there and commute to Meeandah.

‘The house is run down but if you’re bored you might be interested in organising to have some work done on it. A gardener comes once a fortnight and the house itself gets springcleaned every couple of months so it will be perfectly habitable.’

She frowned. ‘I appreciate your confidence in my interior decorating skills but I don’t need amusement, Max, I need to rebuild my life so I can regain my independence.’

He knew she expected them to part after the twelve months, she’d told him so several times, and he’d deliberately put no pressure at all on her about his own growing feelings.

Perhaps if he spent more time with her she’d decide he was the catch of the season. What a joke. She’d confirm what he had always known that he didn’t have much to offer her.

He couldn’t have children and she was a great mother and should have lots of children.

He wasn’t used to such negative thoughts and lack of self-confidence and if this was what falling in love did, he wasn’t impressed.

He’d just have to put up with the agony in the slim chance that she’d realise they would deal very well together in the long term.

‘Why don’t we go for a drive on Sunday in the Hummer?’ he said to change the subject. ‘My poor baby hasn’t had a rough-up for a few months now and Mrs White has offered to mind Elsa for a few hours.’

She glanced at him quickly and then away. ‘Fine,’ she replied, though she sounded surprised.

It wasn’t roaring enthusiasm. She’d said fine, so he’d work on it from there.

He hadn’t been out for a while and it would be interesting to see whether Georgia was a bushbashing girl or not. Tayla certainly hadn’t been.

‘What are you smiling at?’

He looked up at her. ‘I was thinking about the one time I took Tayla out in the Hummer and she had hysterics as soon as I turned off the main highway. She liked sitting up above all the other cars with people watching on the main road.’

‘That would be the part I’d hate most.’

‘Wait until you see what she can do.’

‘Should I regret agreeing?’

He raised his eyebrows suggestively. ‘We’ll see.’

Max loved having Georgia beside him in the Hummer. They took a short drive into the hills that first day and the rough fire trail he’d chosen carried them deeper into the forest in a slow incline towards the trig point at the top of the hill.

The overhanging branches slapped the side of the vehicle and Georgia laughed with delight as they bumped and crashed their way through the bush.

‘I’m impressed, Max,’ she said, laughing at him as another huge frond of prickly lantana swished down the side of the paintwork. ‘You really do take your baby offroad and rough her up. You’re not just a show pony.’

‘I’ll give you show pony,’ he threatened, and turned down another trail that seemed even more overgrown than the last but then cleared and opened out to a rocky outcrop overlooking the valley floor.

When Max turned off the engine, bellbirds pinged their songs in the scrub and the rustle of lizards could be heard, scuttling away from the now invaded open ground.

‘You were lucky this wasn’t a dead end.’ Georgia gazed around in delight.

‘Technically it is. But call me lucky,’ he said, and then pulled the map from the door. ‘Actually, I cheated.’

‘Pretty cool navigating anyway,’ she said and, undid her seat belt. ‘Can I get out?’

‘Absolutely. Do you want a hand to climb down?’

‘No.’ She pretended to frown at him. ‘Thank you. I’m a big girl.’ Max watched her jump from the cab and he climbed out himself with a grin.

This was another side he hadn’t seen of Georgia. She glowed with vitality and enthusiasm as she crunched her way across short grass and small boulders to lean, a little recklessly, he thought, over the edge.

On the other side of the canyon a waterfall fell hundreds of metres to the valley floor and the twisting sliver of a silver river at the bottom.

Max came up next to her, ostensibly to share the view but really to grab her if she overbalanced, and when she looked across at him her eyes sparkled as she took in the magnificent views.

Max smiled back indulgently at her. He was falling deeper and deeper in love with this woman every minute and he was beginning to think she wasn’t as immune to him as he’d thought.

‘There’s nobody within miles and miles of us, is there, Max?’

‘Nope,’ he said. ‘All this within an hour from home.’

‘Elsa would love it.’

‘We’ll bring her next time.’ Max looked forward to more days like this. His family—if only it were really so. ‘No doubt she has her mother’s adventurous heart.’

‘I love it. I love the Hummer. I love the bush.’ She looked around eagerly. ‘Thank you for bringing me today, Max. I needed a total change and this is wonderful.’ She spread her arms and in doing so shifted a collection of rocks from under her foot that threw her off balance for a moment.

Max pulled her back against him before she could really grasp that she had been in danger and then she didn’t know whether the thumping in her heart was from the near fall or…from being in Max’s arms against his delicious chest.

Thankfully he made light of it as he righted her and shifted her to a safer position. ‘Falling for me, are you, Georgia?’ he said.

She could do that—despite all the reasons she shouldn’t. Why wouldn’t she? She felt so connected to him at this moment. Two consenting adults in the wild with no one to see what they did. Deep inside a little voice cried plaintively. Why hadn’t he kissed her?

‘You’re a safer place to fall than over the edge,’ she said lightly, hoping he’d put the breathlessness in her voice down to her near miss when, in fact, it had come from her own unexpected erotic thoughts that wouldn’t go away.

‘Glad you think of me as safe,’ Max said dryly, but Georgia was busy with her own thoughts.

Fairly explicit, unexpected thoughts. Nymphs and satires. Naked in the bush. Max’s chest.

Ants and rocks in your back… Her sensible side brought her back to earth, and Georgia turned away to hide her flaming cheeks.

What on earth had those fantasies come from? She pushed the graphic pictures from the front of her mind and searched for diversion in other appetites. ‘Let’s picnic here.’

‘Fine.’ Max’s answer was short and she glanced at him. He was watching her and she could feel the blush steal up her cheeks just from looking at him so she turned away again to find Mrs White’s picnic basket.

‘I’ll get it.’ Max had the other door open. ‘You find a spot to put the rug. I don’t want ants in my pants.’

She laughed. They both had ants on the brain. Max came across with the basket and suddenly she was ravenous.

After the first Sunday trip when Max discovered Georgia enjoyed an adventure as much as he did, a whole new facet of their relationship opened up.

They began to take Elsa with them for excursions in the Hummer as well. They travelled along old fire trails and explored deserted gullies lined with lush tropical greenery and soaring gumtrees.

Elsa had her feet dangled in tiny tumbling streams and Max taught Georgia how to winch logs that had fallen during storms and the best way to chainsaw the heavier timber that often blocked the trails.

Max promised more trips when they moved north and the tenure at Murwillumbah grew closer.

The Byron Bay house overlooked the ocean across rolling green hills, and Georgia felt at peace there immediately.

The house was a white-painted Queenslander design with decorated gables and wrought-iron rails that marched out of sight. Two-storied, it had more wrought-iron fans that embraced the veranda posts, like the wedding cake they hadn’t had.

Two of the front wide bay windows faced the not-too-distant ocean and to sit and dream over the shifting sea always made Georgia sigh with pleasure. There was even a telescope trained on the horizon to idle away time.

Her temporary posting had come through for part-time work at Meeandah Hospital and last night she’d decided that no matter how beautiful it was on the swing seat here with Elsa on her lap, she’d spent almost ten years of her life gaining experience and qualifications for a job she loved—and it was a good thing she would finally use those skills.

It was time to go back to work and the day had arrived. She just needed to get her act together.

Georgia weighed the keys to Mrs White’s car in her hand and suddenly wished she didn’t have to go. She’d feel differently once she was there but it was hard to leave Elsa for the first time for eight full hours.

The last four months had been necessary to rebuild her shattered confidence and learn the art of motherhood. She knew she couldn’t stay in this bubble. The real world was out there and she needed to prepare herself for when this hiatus was gone.

When the year was up she and Max would part ways and that thought brought greyness into the bright sunshine of the morning. It had become harder to imagine no Max in her life, which in itself was dangerous.

Apart from when he worked, since that night she’d began sharing meals with Max, they’d rarely been apart.

They been to the beach at Byron Bay and the lighthouse and shopped at the cosmopolitan markets that sold everything from home-grown coffee-beans to the finest silk and jewellery. They’d picked herbs from Max’s aunt’s herb garden and lain on the lawn in the evening to see the first stars.

Yet always at the back of her mind Georgia had known it had to end.

She had to end it, because even though they’d managed to keep out of Sol’s orbit for the last few months, she knew there was more trouble to come.

She would never forgive herself if anything happened to Max. Max had no idea how obsessed her ex-husband was, and when Sol actually found out she’d married Max she had no idea what he would do.

Now that she wasn’t the gibbering mess she’d been after Elsa’s birth, it had come home to her how unfair it was to drag Max into her troubles, and she could feel the stormclouds gathering on the horizon.

With their locum move to Meeandah, she had the opportunity to sink her teeth into obstetrics again even if it was only for a couple of weeks, and that meant she would be one step closer to independence.

Max had been wonderfully supportive about her starting work and her daughter would be settled with Mrs White in the new house for the hours she’d be away.

Her first shift since she’d become a mother herself had arrived.

She slipped back into Elsa’s room one last time to check her baby was still asleep. Elsa’s tiny fist was jammed against her mouth and every few seconds she’d suck gently in her sleep. Georgia knew she had to go.

When Georgia walked into Meeandah Maternity Ward she could hear the cry of a hungry baby and it brought a tiny smile to her face. She really did love being around birthing women and their babies.

Her biggest problems in her work had not been the clients or the midwives, it had been old-school, entrenched-idea doctors. Those medical officers who interfered with the natural process of birth because of their own impatience or lack of confidence in the birthing woman. Those who called a woman’s labour a ‘failure to progress’ when often it had been a doctor’s ‘failure to wait’!

The nurse manager of the hospital had seemed impressed with Georgia’s qualifications and experience and Georgia had felt the warmth and quality of the care and facilities from the moment she’d stepped through the doors. This hospital met the needs of their clients first and she couldn’t wait to be a part of it.

For her first morning Georgia’s handover report was given by another senior midwife who greeted her with delight. ‘You came. I thought it was too good to be true.’

Georgia smiled and held out her hand, but the woman hugged her instead.

‘I’m Karissa, and I’ve been trying to secure at least a week’s break for a couple of months now, but staffing hadn’t made that possible. With you here I can leave without feeling like I’ve abandoned the ship.’

Georgia looked around her and it felt so darned good to be back in a maternity unit. ‘I’m just as keen to get back to work. My baby is four months old and I’ve left milk with our housekeeper. I hope she’ll be fine.’

‘I fed my son, Hamish, like that for a year when I went back to work. He managed well. We’re glad to have some help here.’

‘So you have someone in labour?’ Georgia felt the exhilaration build.

‘Yep. I’ll take you in and introduce you. The rest of the ward can wait. We’ve only two other maternities in. The general ward staff will watch them while we have someone in labour. Most of the alternate lifestyle women here go home four hours after birth and the two mums we have staying are Caesareans births back from the base hospital.’

Georgia followed her new friend down the ward to the end of the corridor and was given a chart from the bench outside the birthing-room door.

‘So let’s do it.’ Karissa tapped the notes. ‘Mel and Tim are having their second baby. The first labour was quick and with no problems two years ago.

‘Mel is due tomorrow. She began regular painful contractions at five this morning and the pains are now gradually increasing in intensity.’ Karissa pointed out the graph she’d charted.

‘Her waters broke at six.’

That’s how it’s supposed to be, Georgia thought as Elsa’s wild birth came to mind. And then she thought of Max, but he was too distracting a thought when she was at work. ‘It sounds great.’

‘They’re excited. She seems to be well established in this labour and, except for some baseline observations, I’ve left them pretty much to themselves to get settled in.’

Karissa knocked and pushed open the door. Mel was leaning over a bench and Tim was massaging her lower back with a rolling dolphin massager. They both looked up briefly and smiled but withdrew their attention until after the contraction finished.

Georgia liked that. The mother needed to stay focussed. She glanced around the homey room. Floral home-made curtains, comfortable recliner rocker, beanbag and gym mat in the corner. It all made for a relaxing atmosphere.

Karissa quietly reminded her where all the emergency medical equipment was hidden behind flip-down cupboards and Georgia had been orientated to the rest of the ward a few days previously by the nurse manager.

While they waited for Mel’s contraction to end, haunting instrumental music strummed from somewhere unseen, and it added to the mood in the room which was intense but focussed.

Mel sighed long and loudly and Georgia saw her shoulders drop with the release of air and the prompt of Tim’s soothing stroke on her shoulder.

She stepped forward to introduce herself quietly before the next contraction hit. ‘Hi. I’m Georgia. I’m taking over from Karissa. You’re both very good at this, aren’t you?’ She smiled.

‘So far it’s better than little Andy’s labour,’ Mel said.

‘Great.’ Georgia picked up the foetal heart monitor. ‘That’s a great tummy you have there, Mel. Will it disturb your rhythm if I listen to your baby’s heart rate through the next contraction, please?’

‘Go ahead. We love to hear the baby.’ Mel patted her stomach. ‘It is a pretty cool watermelon but I’ll be glad to swap a heavy bulge for a baby.’

Georgia leaned in next to Mel and placed the finger-shaped ultrasound doppler a few inches below Mel’s belly button and the clip-clop sound of Mel and Tim’s baby filled the room. Everyone smiled until the next contraction started and Mel and Tim went back to work.

The baby’s heart rate continued strongly and even picked up pace for most of the contraction before evening out again. Mel sighed as the contraction finished and the baby’s heart rate clopped along merrily. Satisfied, Georgia stepped back and wiped the conducting jelly off Mel’s abdomen.

‘That’s great. Baby is cruising in there. I’ll leave you for a few minutes to complete the handover with Karissa and then I’ll be back to do a few observations on you. Then we’ll talk about your preferences for the birth.’

Georgia followed Karissa out the door and closed it behind them. They could hear the murmur of the next contraction starting.

‘They’re wonderful.’

‘Yeah. Lucky you for a nice shift and you get to catch a baby. Come on, I’ll show you the rest.’ Karissa breezed into an open ward where two women sat up in bed, eating their breakfast.

‘This is Leanne and Tanya, our two postnatal ladies. And this is Georgia, who is your midwife on today.’

‘Good morning.’ Georgia waved. ‘I’ll see more of you when we’ve had our baby, but for the moment do you need anything in case I get tied up in the birthing room?’

‘I’m fine.’ Leanne waved them away with her piece of toast and Tanya smiled and shook her head.

‘I’ll see you later, then. You can buzz if you need someone, but otherwise just have a lazy morning and we’ll catch up later.’

‘Sounds good,’ Leanne said around her next bite.

‘Leanne likes her food,’ Karissa whispered with a grin as they walked back towards the desk. ‘I just wish I could put it away like she does and still stay that thin. And if you can’t find Tanya, she pops out for a cigarette. She’s trying to give up.’

She glanced at the clock and grimaced. ‘That’s about all. When Mel’s ready to birth, push the red call button and one of the girls will come down from the ward to help you.’

‘The on-call doctor…’ Karissa grinned cheekily ‘…in this case your husband, can be contacted on the pager number if you need him.’

Georgia nodded and fought down the warmth that spread through her just thinking of Max. It was happening more often when she thought of him. What was wrong with her? ‘What about pain relief orders if Mel wants something?’

‘There is a doctor’s standing order book there which spells out the options, and it is countersigned by the locums when they come the first day. I usually let the doctor know if I give any analgesia or do an internal examination so they know where the woman is in her labour in case we need them. Otherwise they will drop in before and after work.’

‘Thanks,’ said Georgia. ‘That all seems pretty standard to any of the small hospitals I’ve worked at.’

Karissa picked up her bag. ‘I have a feeling Max would like to be here but if you ring him don’t let him push you out of the way for the birth. We can’t have him begin bad habits and we catch our own babies here. But he’ll let you know when he does his morning round.’

Georgia savoured the thought of having Max there for their first professional birth together. It would be lovely to share such a moment with him and until she knew what sort of back-up the general ward nurses wanted to be, the idea seemed sensible.

Karissa went on. ‘It works for us. On paper, it’s sad our only OB GP has retired, but in fact he rarely came for deliveries and high-risk women were shipped out anyway. If we stick to low-risk labours, I can’t see why we couldn’t do what we’ve always done and keep training midwives to be autonomous and the unit open. Fifty miles away from her family to the base hospital is a long way to send a woman to have a normal delivery.’

‘I agree. It’s crazy that it all depends on some number-cruncher in a distant city.’

‘Don’t start me on that. That way is madness, girl.’ Karissa had obviously been there. ‘We’re just dots on the big picture.’ She shrugged and yawned. ‘But I’ve been up all night and what I vote for at the moment is going home to bed. Good luck and happy birthing.’

She pulled the drug keys from her pocket with a wry smile and handed them over. ‘I’m so glad I didn’t accidentally go home with the keys and have to come back.’ She yawned again. ‘Bye.’

CHAPTER FIVE

ALONE and in charge of a labour, Georgia thought wryly. It had been a while.

She had a quick look through the two inpatient records to check there were no medications due and why the women had chosen to have Caesarean births. Both had had babies in the breech position and their doctor had suggested they not attempt vaginal deliveries.

She reminded herself to ask Max what his stance on that question was.

She picked up Mel’s chart and quickly scanned her previous labour and antenatal history, before tucking the chart under her arm and heading back to the labouring woman.

‘Hi, guys. How are you going in here?’

Tim looked a little more stressed and Mel’s smile had slipped. ‘It’s getting tough now,’ Mel said through clenched teeth, and the next contraction cut off her sentence as she began to rock and moan with the force of the pains.

When the contraction had eased, Georgia quickly checked Mel’s blood pressure, temperature and pulse, and then listened to the baby’s heart rate through the next contraction. All observations were normal and she documented the progress in the nurse’s notes.

When she’d finished she crossed to the cupboard where the large blue exercise ball was kept. Georgia rolled it across the floor to show Mel and Tim. ‘Would you like to try sitting on the ball in the shower for a change, Mel?’

‘I might fall off.’ Mel gave it a quick glance and shook her head. ‘The ball wasn’t here last time.’

Georgia rolled it around in front of herself and sat down on it to show Mel. She tried to move it with her hands while sitting on it and the ball didn’t budge. ‘It sticks to the floor and won’t roll away when you are on it, Mel. Balls are very safe.’

Mel frowned and then nodded that she understood.

Georgia went on. ‘Your legs must be tired. Sitting here will straighten your back and encourage the contractions to work straight down with gravity and onto the cervical opening to make the contractions achieve as much as they can, just like the position you are in now.’

Georgia studied Mel’s strained face and her instincts told her Mel would get some relief sitting for a while. ‘The position you’re in now has been great but you may benefit from a change of position, even if for a few minutes. It’s getting tough.’

‘Too right it’s getting tough.’ Mel glared at her husband and Georgia restrained her smile. When a woman began to express irritation towards her partner, it often meant good progress in labour.

‘You could take the ball into the shower and while you sit you could direct the heat of the water onto the area giving the most pain. You can sway from side to side too—all those things will give good relief from the pain.’

Tim grinned. ‘What a salesperson. Do you have shares in the company that sells birth balls?’

‘Absolutely. Have a go, Tim, and tell Mel if it feels safe.’

Tim lowered himself gingerly onto the ball and never looked in danger of rolling away. ‘I see what you mean about it sticking to the floor. If you don’t want the ball, Mel, I might sit here to rub your back. Mine feels better already.’