The Midwife's Little Miracle

by Fiona McArthur

  She smiled gently. ‘That’s my own opinion and Emma’s lucky she has you to look out for her. Though if she’s only halfway there, she may not want to know about labour and the birth process just yet,’ Montana said thoughtfully.

  She captivated him. ‘Why’s that?’ He just wanted her to keep on talking so he could watch and enjoy.

  ‘Labour is the last thing a young woman wants to hear about when she’s still dealing with the shock of being fertile.’

  ‘Women’s intuition?’ He was happy to learn. ‘What do you suggest?’

  She pursed her lips and he was distracted for a moment again as she went on. ‘Maybe some sessions on pregnancy health and lifestyle choices? We still have time to engage her for the benefit of baby and her own health. And that information is not so scary initially.’

  His brain had become stationary again for a few seconds and he had to blink several times to get his head back together. He kept seeing Montana’s mouth and that frozen moment had stunned him silly. He didn’t want to go there—or he did and he knew he couldn’t—and needed to stay focussed on what she was saying.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ He blinked again. ‘So you’d be happy to do a couple of sessions with Emma?’

  Thankfully Montana seemed oblivious to his mental disorder and he was glad about that. Very glad.

  ‘Absolutely,’ she said. ‘It might help to ease her into the idea of learning about her body as we go along.’

  Everything had double meanings for him at the moment. He fancied a body lesson—specifically concerning the one beside him on the seat—and every day brought more observations for him to store in his expanding folder of what he’d come to realise was growing into a deep and dangerous attraction to the woman beside him.

  The mystification had started that first day on the mountain. At least he’d figured out what had been wrong with him a month or so ago and he had the walls up, but he was still struggling to stay focussed when he talked to her. ‘So you would be interested in helping Emma?’ Damn. He’d already asked her that.

  ‘Yes.’ She looked at him as if to remind him they’d been there but there was no doubt in her voice. Forget all that, he told himself. He’d done the right thing in asking.

  Montana frowned as she considered Emma’s dilemma. ‘So how did the parents react to the news?’

  He thought ruefully of the intense week he’d had with both sets of grandparents-to-be. ‘Badly, but they’re coming around. It’s even more tricky because Emma’s mother isn’t well.’

  Montana tilted her head. ‘In what way unwell?’

  Maybe it would help to clarify his thoughts if he ran it by Montana. ‘I wish I knew. Clare still puzzles me but there’s something niggling below the surface. She had a car accident a month ago and is complaining of being vague, clumsy and irritable, which is unlike her. There’s nothing on her cerebral CT scan and I’m not sure but I think I’m closer to working it out.’

  Montana nodded. ‘More worry for poor Emma. You need your mum at times like this.’ She pondered that. ‘And the baby’s father? Is he into relationships?’

  ‘Her boyfriend, Tommy, agrees on keeping the baby, if that’s what you mean?’ He grinned at scatterbrained Tommy being a father. No doubt he’d mature eventually. ‘I think he plans to stay around, but he’s only eighteen. They’ve been together for three years.’

  ‘You’ll be up for a dads’ class then,’ she said mischievously.

  Lord help him, he hadn’t seen himself doing that. ‘I don’t know anything about being a dad!’

  ‘Neither would he so you can both learn as you go along. I could lend you Dawn for an hour for show and tell. You’re pretty good with her.’

  She was teasing him, and he liked it, but he wasn’t pretending to know something he didn’t. ‘I’ll help but you have to come with Dawn.’

  ‘The value will be in the guy aspect. But we’ll talk about that later.’

  Her eyes shone and felt his mood lift with hers. ‘It’s not too much work for you to start with?’

  ‘The clinic and Emma?’ She shook her head vehemently. ‘No. I’d love to help with both of them. I’m starting to climb the walls here without working somewhere.’

  ‘Guilt is good.’ He smiled. ‘Seriously, though, that’s wonderful. I’ll set Emma up for later this week or early next week and talk to Ned about the clinics.’

  Almost a week later Montana watched out of the lounge room window as Andy’s car pulled into the drive.

  A too-thin blonde girl—young woman, she corrected herself—had her head down and didn’t look up at the house when Andy opened the passenger door.

  So he opened doors for everyone. It was such a lovely gesture and it made her appreciate him even more that he would do it for young patients like Emma as well as older adults.

  Montana watched the teenager mumble a thank you and sighed.

  She glanced at the table and chairs she’d set up with pamphlets and a gift pack Misty had sent up from New South Wales.

  It wasn’t so much a statement about learning as information Emma could take away when she left and maybe read at home. But it wouldn’t help if she didn’t want to be here.

  Montana aimed for the whole session to illustrate the fact that a mother’s choices affected a baby’s future, but none of it would sink in if she couldn’t engage Emma’s interest.

  Montana twitched a tablecloth over the table to create a bumpy but blank face to the room. She’d see if curiosity would encourage Emma’s interest later.

  Montana moved to the door as Andy ushered in the girl. His face showed palpable relief when he saw her. ‘Here’s Montana. Montana, this is Emma.’

  He looked particularly handsome this morning in his open-necked shirt, and his thick hair was tousled as if they’d had the windows open on the drive. Or he’d been running his hands through it as he’d driven Emma here.

  His stressed relief at seeing Montana made her realise for the first time that he wasn’t always as comfortable with everybody as he was with her. Strangely that warmed her to him even more.

  ‘Hello, Emma,’ she said. ‘Thank you, Andy. We’ll sit on the lounge, not at the table, and just chat for a bit.’

  Andy tapped the ends of his fingers together a few times and looked hopelessly out of his depth. He stepped back. ‘Do you need me?’

  Montana took pity on his discomfort and shook her head, although Emma threw him an anguished glance.

  Montana smiled at him. ‘That’s fine. How about if you run Emma home later when we’re finished, unless you get called away?’

  ‘Great idea. I’ll leave you ladies to it, then, and be back in a little while?’

  He dropped the keys onto the bookshelf as if they were hot. ‘Emma can give directions if I’m not around and I’ll use the utility if I need to go to the hospital.’

  Andy waved and backed out of the room. Both women watched him go.

  ‘Well, you really had him scared,’ Montana commented, and watched the sudden glint of amusement in Emma’s face before she schooled her features into a surly frown again.

  Gotcha, Montana thought with an inner smile and a little relief.

  She watched Emma perch uncomfortably on the edge of the lounge and share her glances between the door and the floor and tried to remember how it had felt at sixteen in the head’s office.

  Montana smiled. ‘I gather you’re a bit nervous about being here?’

  ‘Andy said I had to come.’ Emma darted a quick look at Montana and narrowed her eyes. ‘I’m keeping my baby.’

  So this was the issue. Fair enough, then, Montana could understand her attitude. ‘Great. I’m a midwife and I’m a good person to know because I catch them.’

  Emma smiled reluctantly.

  Montana went on. ‘But your baby isn’t going to be here for a long time and Dr Buchanan and I thought you might like some extra knowledge to help you in the rest of your pregnancy.’

  Montana paused, didn’t rush to fill the silence, and
waited. The silence lengthened. The relaxed expression on Montana’s face didn’t change, but Emma began to fidget and finally she looked at Montana.

  Emma shrugged. ‘So what are you going to talk about?’

  ‘I guess I need you to participate and ask questions otherwise you won’t take home as much as you could have. It would help if I knew what would you like to know.’

  Emma shrugged again and Montana saw the frightened girl Emma was trying to hide.

  ‘Maybe we should get to know each other before I do all the talking,’ Montana suggested. She waited, and Emma eventually nodded.

  ‘You could tell me one thing about yourself, Emma. Tell me about your family maybe.’

  Emma stayed balanced on the edge of the lounge with her arms crossed but she did answer eventually. ‘There’s my dad, who has a sawmill. I get on well with him.’

  She looked down darkly at the carpet. ‘Or I did before I was pregnant.’

  Life wouldn’t be fun for Emma at this moment, Montana could see that, and she softened her tone. ‘He’ll come around. He’s trying to adjust the dreams he had—parents have huge dreams in their minds for their children—and now he has to change those pictures into the ones that you will make for yourself.’

  Emma looked up and pondered Montana’s words before she nodded. This time she met Montana’s eyes. ‘That does make sense. Thank you.’

  That was when that Montana saw the first glimpses of the girl that Andy had spoken of with such admiration so she pushed on. ‘Have you any brothers or sisters?’

  Emma sniffed. ‘Three older brothers who wanted to beat up poor Tommy.’ Emma looked up and her chin tilted. ‘But I wouldn’t let them.’

  Montana liked her more every second. ‘I have an idea you could be a pretty strong-minded young woman when you want to be.’

  Emma rolled her eyes. ‘Men are so dumb sometimes.’ She shook her head in disgust. ‘As if thumping Tommy would help. Tommy’s the only one who understands.’

  Montana bit back a smile. ‘Well, that’s a good thing. Lots of younger men wouldn’t be able to get their head around being a father.’

  Emma even went so far as to grin then. ‘I don’t think he’s even thought of that, just that it’s happened, and we are the ones who have to make the best of it.’

  ‘And your mum?’ Montana hoped Emma didn’t mind her asking.

  ‘Mum’s been sick lately.’ Emma frowned. ‘I am sorry she’s had this worry as well but if she’d tried to get better I wouldn’t have been away from the house so much and this might not have happened.’

  Montana left that statement lie where it fell and moved the conversation around to why they were there.

  ‘OK. Then I’ll start with a little about myself and why I think I can help you. I really do know about having babies because that’s my job. As a midwife I deliver babies in a hospital and help the mum and baby learn to breastfeed and get used to each other. And I have a baby of my own.’

  Emma looked interested at the news of Dawn.

  Montana went on. ‘I thought we’d talk about pregnancy so you could be comfortable with what will go on in your body as it changes.’

  Emma looked out from under her lowered brows. ‘So you’re not going to try and talk me into not having the baby?’

  Montana’s gaze locked with the girl’s and shook her head emphatically. ‘No. That’s your decision, Emma, and it seems to me that you are pretty sure what you want to happen. But with that decision comes a responsibility that you do the best for the baby inside you. Is that how you feel?’

  ‘I suppose so. I know I want my baby to grow healthy, even if it’s going to hurt when I have him or her.’

  The fear she’d expected was there and Montana nodded. ‘Try and remember women are designed to give birth. You’re young and young women usually bounce back from birth even better than older women, but we might leave that to talk about another time.

  ‘Did Dr Buchanan tell you we could have another session if you want later? I think there’s too much to cover in one day.’

  Emma met Montana’s look with a sheepish grin. ‘He said that. I only came today because he’s been so good to me and Tommy, but you’re not too bad, so far. I’ll probably come back.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Montana said, biting back a smile, ‘then we’d better get started before I fall out of favour.’

  Emma grinned again and the tension lessened noticeably in the room.

  ‘Today I thought we’d talk about where you are in your pregnancy now. How many weeks pregnant are you, Emma?’

  Emma unfolded her arms and chewed her nail. ‘The ultrasound man at the base said twenty weeks yesterday.’

  Montana picked up the book of diagrams she had and pointed to the twenty-week foetus. ‘Your baby is fully formed and you should be nearly able to feel his or her movements.’

  Emma craned her neck and studied the picture and Montana gave her the book and reached for another copy of the same publication.

  ‘So when are you due?’ Montana flicked forward to the picture of a woman with a full-term baby and showed Emma the page number so she could skip forward if she wanted to.

  ‘Andy says the seventeenth of July.’

  Montana nodded. ‘Right in the middle of the year. So you’ll be having a Christmas in July baby. Your best present will arrive some time in our winter, which will be helpful when you are big and heavy for the cooler weather.’

  Emma looked up and a faint glimmer of a smile lit her pale face. ‘That’s the first positive thing anyone has said about my baby.’

  Poor Emma. ‘That will change. Babies make everyone smile.’

  Actually, Emma would be fine. She was smart, would have family support by the end, and was protective of her baby. ‘Everyone else is still in shock, honey. Now that this baby is a reality they’ll come around. That’s what families and good friends do.’

  Emma pursed her lips thoughtfully and nodded then settled more comfortably back into the lounge.

  Montana sat back in her own chair. ‘OK. So let’s talk about where your baby is up to now.’

  Emma met Montana’s eyes. ‘It’s hard to think of it as a baby. I haven’t even got a belly, especially as I threw up so much that I’ve lost weight.’

  Montana nodded. ‘For some people that’s normal. That should settle now. It’s the surge of hormones of early pregnancy and other hormones come more into play now. Just make sure you have something in your stomach before your feet hit the floor if it still bothers you.’

  ‘Like toast. Yuk.’ Emma screwed up her face.

  ‘Even a dry biscuit is often enough. But see if you can get someone to bring it to you.’ Montana had a sudden vision of Andy bringing the mother of his baby toast in the mornings. If his wife was pregnant, Andy would certainly be the man to do that. She looked at Emma and hoped she had someone to do it for her.

  ‘How about water crackers?’ Emma grinned and it changed her whole face. She was in the swing of it now. ‘How about a pretzel?’ They both laughed and Montana sighed with relief as the young woman within began to show herself more consistently.

  ‘Nothing wrong with a couple of pretzels—just don’t overdo it on the salt. It’s better for you than losing your breakfast every day.’

  Emma stopped chewing her nails. ‘Cool. I’ll try it and let you know.’

  ‘Just remember when you’re eating properly you need to start thinking about making sure you have all the nutrients and vitamins your baby needs because she’s greedy to grow and will take all the goodness for herself and leave you nothing if you don’t eat enough of what she needs.’

  Emma’s eyes widened. ‘Like a worm?’

  Montana smiled. ‘Sort of. Right now she’s a tiny baby the size of a big banana, about two to three hundred grams. In two weeks she’ll put on another one hundred and fifty grams—that’s near a pound in the old measurements. She’ll grow from around six and half inches long to about eight inches at twenty-three weeks. That’s the size of
a small doll.’

  ‘Wow.’

  Montana nodded. ‘It’s pretty impressive. Everything is made in miniature and over the next twenty weeks will double in size, which means she…’ Montana paused and smiled. ‘Notice I call your baby a girl only because mine was.’

  Emma nodded with a shy smile of her own and Montana went on. ‘Her brain is growing really fast. Mothers need to know that what they eat, drink, smoke or expose themselves to—for example, I wouldn’t use pesticides or strong cleaning agents—affects the way their baby’s brain grows.’

  ‘I want her to have a brain,’ Emma said dryly. ‘That’s pretty important to keep in mind, as far as I’m concerned.’

  Montana agreed. ‘That’s what I meant about responsibility. Even a mother’s emotions can impact on a baby so if Mum is always sad then the baby thinks it’s normal to be feeling sad a lot of the time. That’s why I tried not to be too sad when I was pregnant.’

  Emma looked up with ready sympathy. ‘Why were you sad?’

  ‘I’m a widow. My husband died last year when I was first pregnant and now I have a nearly two-month-old daughter called Dawn. So I am bringing up my daughter without a daddy.’

  Montana couldn’t help but think of Andy that morning. He’d bounced Dawn on his lap while Montana had been eating and she realised how often she’d come to the kitchen to retrieve her daughter to find Andy chatting away to her as if she understood every word he said.

  Dawn thought she had a father. It was an unsettling concept but she needed to concentrate on Emma and think about that curly one later.

  Emma was still pondering Montana’s loss. ‘That is sad. Why did you call her Dawn?’

  Montana knew where this was leading and she just hoped it didn’t cause too much damage but it was too late now. ‘Because she was born right at sunrise.’

  Emma nodded. ‘In your hospital?’

  Montanan smiled wryly. Yep. She’d have to tell her. ‘Dawn was born a month early and I was a bit far away at the time. She was born on the side of a mountain.’

  ‘On the side of a mountain?’ Emma stared, openmouthed and horrified. ‘Who was with you?’