A Very Single Midwife

by Fiona McArthur

  Rene smiled mistily up at her hero and Bella slipped out to give them some privacy. It must be nice to be so sure you could declare your love to the world, she thought.

  When she returned to prepare Rene for transfer to Theatre, Bella could see that Rene was even more nervous and Jim was downright terrified.

  ‘Remember, you guys, even though you haven’t done this before, we have! Lots of times. And we’re very good at it.’ The couple smiled and Bella helped Rene onto the theatre trolley for transport to the operating theatre.

  ‘You walk beside Rene’s head, Jim, and I’ll walk on the other side. Pete, our orderly, is the engine.’ Pete waved at the couple and the mood lightened despite the movement towards Theatre.

  Theatre Sister met them at the door and good-naturedly grilled Rene on who she was and what she was there for.

  Rene looked up at the circle of faces above her. ‘Dr Rainford is going to find out what this big bump in my stomach is.’ She smiled bravely and Jim looked like he wanted to cry with pride.

  Theatre Sister produced the consent form and went through it all again with Rene and then they were through. Bella slipped away to change into her theatre scrubs and Pete took Jim into the surgeons’ room to do the same.

  By the time they returned to Rene, she was draped and in a sitting position.

  Dr Knowles, the elderly anaesthetist, smiled at Jim. ‘Now you’re all here we can get started. If you’d like to hold her hand, Dad, I’ll explain as I go.’ Jim stood in front of his wife and she leaned her face into his chest.

  ‘Right, then, Rene. I’m going to give you a local anaesthetic in your back first, and then the area will be numb. You won’t feel the bigger needle or the little catheter that I leave behind to inject the anaesthetic into but you will feel some pushing and prodding.’

  Rene nodded and Jim squeezed her hand. The whole procedure was completed ten minutes later when a long thick strip of sticking-plaster was placed over the tubing to keep it in place in the epidural space where the anaesthetic would bathe the nerves at that level and deaden sensation. By leaving a catheter in place, Dr Knowles could top up Rene with more anaesthetic if she needed it.

  ‘My legs feel funny,’ Rene said, and Dr Knowles nodded.

  ‘They’ll feel heavy and later when I check with some ice, you won’t be able to feel the sensation of cold either.’

  After a short while, Rene was moved onto the operating table and sterile green sheets were draped until she and Jim couldn’t see her stomach any more.

  ‘How are you going, you two?’ Bella joined their little space for a moment before she had to get scrubbed.

  ‘It feels weird to know they’re doing things I can’t feel,’ Rene said, and Bella squeezed her shoulder.

  ‘I know. But your baby will be here soon. I’ll be back in a while and we’ll gag all the people up the other end so Jim can announce what you’ve had. OK?’ The two nodded and Bella ensured the resuscitation trolley was functioning.

  She switched on the infant overhead heater and light on the resuscitation trolley.

  She really had no part of the operation except to stand beside the assisting surgeon—in this case, Rohan—and wait for the baby to be born, when she would be in charge of any resuscitation required.

  Because Rene hadn’t actually gone long into labour and was under epidural anaesthetic and not general anaesthetic, the baby would be very unlikely to need any sort of resuscitation. So today was about as much parental contact in those first few minutes as possible.

  Gloved and gowned, Bella stepped up to the operating table and Scott looked up. There was an aura between them that brought a blush to Bella’s cheeks and she was glad that no one could see her face. His eyes met hers and while she couldn’t tell what he was thinking, indifference wasn’t the emotion. She’d never felt this way across the table from him before and she looked down to where she’d clasped her hands together to still the sudden tremor his presence caused. When she looked up again he was back at work. She stared down at the operation in case someone saw the confusion in her eyes.

  She saw Rohan glance at the two of them and Bella could tell he’d decided that she and Scott had something going on. For him, he was surprisingly quiet.

  But maybe that was because those last few seconds before the baby was born were always tense. The incision was made, the waters were broken and Scott had his hand inside Rene’s abdomen. The baby’s head was high in Rene’s chest and Bella watched as first one foot and then the other and then two round little buttocks were eased out of the abdominal cavity, followed by the baby’s chest.

  ‘Breech is the only time you get to see what it is before you see who it is,’ said Scott, and his eyes smiled as he met Bella’s warning look. ‘But we’re not going to say it.’ He slid the forceps in beside the baby’s head and gently eased the last of the baby out.

  Rohan clamped and cut the cord and handed the infant to Bella, who lightly suctioned baby’s mouth and then scooted around to Rene and Jim with their baby in her arms. ‘Well, Jim, what have you got?’

  ‘It’s a girl,’ Jim said as the tears rolled down his face. He kissed his wife. ‘You’ve given me a daughter, and she’s beautiful like her mother. I want to call her Georgia Rene.’

  When Georgia Rene had been cuddled, and with some tenacious manoeuvring by Bella and long-suffering agreement by Scott, the baby was breastfed on the operating table as the operation went on. After the feed, Bella, Jim and Georgia went back to the ward to wait for Rene to return.

  ‘Now I want you to sit in Rene’s darkened room and cuddle your baby against your skin.’ Jim obediently sat on the chair and held out his arms. ‘Take your shirt off,’ Bella said, and Jim stared at her.

  Bella smiled at his confusion. ‘If she’d been born normally she’d have been placed on her mother’s skin. Because she was a Caesarean it doesn’t mean she can’t have that same feeling with her dad.’

  Jim shrugged. ‘I’m game. Compared to what Rene had to go through, I get the best part.’ He took his naked daughter from Bella and cuddled her against his not inconsiderable chest, wrapped in a blanket. Bella left them and Jim explained to his daughter about the new world as they both waited for the most important woman in their lives to come back to them.

  An hour later Scott came around to the ward to see Jim. Father and baby were dozing in the chair and Scott pulled the door shut after backing out of the room. He went in search of Bella.

  ‘What on earth is going on in that room?’ he asked. ‘Jim’s semi-naked and the baby is glued to his chest.’

  Bella shook her head. ‘Welcome to the new millennium, Dr Rainford. It’s called father bonding. They tested babies and those warmed against either parent’s skin warmed faster than those warmed in humidicribs.’

  ‘I believe you but thousands wouldn’t.’

  Bella raised her eyebrows. ‘I can produce the study, I’ll get it off the internet tonight.’

  To her surprise he said, ‘I’ll drop around.’

  ‘Why?’ she asked.

  ‘We need to talk.’ He didn’t smile but she heaved a sigh of relief. He wasn’t going to pretend last night had never happened.

  ‘After seven, then,’ she said, and he waved and left the ward.

  Somehow the rest of the day was tinged with excitement and Bella flew through her work with single-minded precision. The day was busy as she spent time with Rene as the new mother settled back into the ward.

  Bella bent the rules and suggested Jim stay the night in Rene’s room as her personal nurse and nanny to his wife and their baby until Rene could move more easily. It was something Gladstone hadn’t seen but was quite common in the birthing centre where Bella had worked in Sydney. There were advantages to being the boss, Bella thought with a wry grin.

  Come five o’clock, she walked out to Blake’s car with a light step and she couldn’t believe she’d caught up on all the administrative work that had accumulated while she’d been away as well.

&n
bsp; By seven o’clock she’d organised the household accounts and even the linen cupboard. Aunt Sophie came out of her room and stopped her in the hallway with a poke.

  ‘Are you on speed or something?’

  Bella stopped and looked at her aunt and then she burst out laughing. ‘No. I’m just feeling very efficient today and I’m capitalising on the feeling while it’s there.’

  ‘Balderdash. Something’s going on.’ She snapped her sparse white eyebrows together and stared at her niece. The doorbell rang and Bella looked at the door and then back at her aunt.

  Sophie’s lip twitched. ‘Expecting someone?’ She cackled. ‘I think I’ll get the door.’

  Bella narrowed her eyes at her aunt and Sophie cackled again. ‘Or I might just go back into my room and watch the next race.’ She ambled away but Bella could hear her chuckling. The doorbell rang again and Vivie came out of the kitchen to answer it and saw Bella. She looked from Bella to the door. ‘Did you want me to get that?’

  Bella felt like stamping her foot. Now it was a production. Sometimes she did wish she lived on her own. She plastered a smile on her face. ‘No, thank you, Vivie. I’ll get it.’

  Vivie nodded, disconcerted, and then shrugged and walked back into the kitchen.

  Bella walked across towards the door before the person on the other side hit the doorbell again, but she was too late.

  It rang and Blake came bolting down the stairs to get it just as Bella opened the door and father and son were left staring at each other.

  CHAPTER TEN

  IT WAS the first time Scott had seen the new Blake. Short-haired and shaven, it was as if the young man from the photo on Scott’s mantelpiece had stepped down into real life. Bella saw the exact moment that Scott confirmed the resemblance between himself and Bella’s boarder. He shot an accusing look at Bella as if she’d known all along.

  The younger man stared from Scott to Bella and the sudden tension between the two sharpened his senses. His eyes widened as Scott took a step towards him.

  ‘Michael?’ At Scott’s question he backed away from the door.

  Blake looked shocked and angry and spun away through the kitchen. A few seconds later Bella heard the back door shut and then the sound of his car revving as he drove away.

  She sighed. ‘I’m sorry about that. It was a misunderstanding.’

  Scott stood still in the doorway and didn’t say anything, just looked at Bella as if it was all her fault she hadn’t told him.

  ‘Please, come in, Scott. I know what you’re thinking, that Blake is your son. I agree it’s a strong possibility but I don’t know for sure. I just had suspicions.’ Surely, especially after last night, he wasn’t going to shut her out of this.

  Scott stared at her for a moment and then nodded. ‘Considering you are the first to say it out loud, I’d say it’s pretty clear that Blake is my son.’

  Bella led the way through to the study and Scott sat gingerly in the big chair until he realised his own son had fixed it and he could sit in it normally. His mouth hardened at the irony of it.

  ‘Am I jumping to conclusions?’ he said.

  Bella shook her head. She tried to block out that he hadn’t said, Are we jumping to conclusions? ‘I don’t think so. Apart from the fact that he looks just like you twenty years ago, Blake’s middle name is Michael, he’s twenty, the people he knew as his parents died in the last year and he’s an only child from Sydney. It all fits.’

  ‘So how did he end up here?’

  She smiled gently. ‘At a guess I’d say he came to see what sort of man his father was.’

  ‘An arrogant sort.’ He winced. ‘I haven’t been very complimentary about him.’

  ‘There’s time for that. He’s a wonderful young man and a joy to have around. But he’s confused. Let him meet you halfway.’

  Scott ran his hands through his hair. ‘As long as he doesn’t kill himself in that car.’

  ‘Welcome to parenthood.’ Bella smiled. ‘You really have it in for his car, don’t you?’

  ‘Actually, I have some good memories of that car.’ He met her eyes and there was a brief moment of intimacy before he dashed her sudden hopes when his mind returned to his son. She could feel the wall he erected between them. She wasn’t invited into this area and Bella tried to contain the hurt that was spreading through her. He confirmed it when he stood up. ‘I’ll go. I need to think about the events of the evening.’

  ‘Maybe I could help.’ She sounded pathetic but Bella couldn’t help herself. She hated to see him in pain and she hated that he didn’t think she could help. She stood as well and followed him to the door. ‘Don’t be too hard on yourself. You couldn’t have known.’

  ‘Thank you, Bella.’ He made no move to kiss her. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  She watched him walk down the path without looking back. Maybe this wasn’t going to work out after all if he could shut her out so easily.

  Later that evening she heard Blake’s car pull into the garage but he didn’t seek her out. Like his father. Bella sighed and went to bed. Reality bites.

  Maybe she needed a BITE ME sticker on her forehead.

  Tuesday

  When Bella went down to breakfast, Blake was there.

  ‘I owe you an apology, Bella. I shouldn’t have left both of you like that.’ He met her eyes. ‘I suppose you guessed I was Michael the day after you hurt your ankle.’ He shrugged. ‘You had to do what you thought was right.’

  ‘Thank you, Blake. I appreciate that.’ She poured her cereal into the bowl. ‘But I didn’t tell him.’

  Blake stared at her and she shook her head. ‘He came to the conclusion after he saw you and you left. It will take time but you’re both special people, I’m sure you’ll work it out.’

  Vivie looked from one to the other. Bella continued with her breakfast as she listened to Blake discuss his father with Vivie.

  She was glad he had someone else he could talk it over with. ‘There may be one extra for tea tonight, Vivie.’ Vivie nodded and didn’t ask who.

  ‘Your car is ready.’ Blake gestured to the refrigerator. ‘Key’s on the fridge.’

  ‘Wonderful, thank you, Blake. Though I’m going to miss that Torana of yours.’

  Blake laughed. ‘I think you’ll find yours goes a little better than you remember. I’ve given it a birthday and it doesn’t seem to feel its age any more.’

  Bella looked up. ‘Will heads turn when I drive down the street, do you think?’

  ‘Unlikely,’ he said dryly, and he looked so like Scott that she felt like giving him a hug. But more because she needed one than he did.

  Later that morning, Bella helped Rene into the shower while Jim went home to change his clothes. Rene’s intravenous line had been removed and a waterproof dressing protected her suture line.

  ‘You’re standing so straight, Rene, considering your operation was only yesterday.’

  Rene walked carefully to the bathroom. ‘I don’t have as much pain as I’d expected. I’m stiff from lying in bed more than actually sore from the cut.’

  Bella nodded. ‘I’ve noticed that the women who have their Caesareans performed under epidural block seem to bounce back sooner than those who have a general anaesthetic.’

  ‘I don’t want to compare them to find out,’ Rene said.

  Bella smiled. ‘OK.’

  Twenty minutes later, when Rene was back sitting in the chair, hair combed and freshly made up, she sighed as she gazed at her sleeping baby. ‘I’m so happy.’

  ‘You have a beautiful daughter,’ Bella agreed as she repacked Rene’s bathroom bag.

  ‘Jim is wonderful. I can’t believe I fought against marrying him for so long.’

  Bella sat on the edge of the bed to listen. ‘So how much age difference is there between you two?’

  ‘Ten years.’ Rene shrugged and Bella blinked. She’d realised Jim was younger than Rene but ten years was close to the difference between Scott and herself.

  ‘He ju
st wore me down.’

  Then her face sobered. ‘One day I lost one of my girlfriends to cancer. She was my age. Life is too short not to grab happiness when you can.’ She smiled the smile of a contented woman. ‘I was a fool. Wasted time.’

  Bella nodded but Rene’s words played on her mind, and when Scott came for his round she couldn’t help commenting about the couple.

  ‘Rene and Jim are thrilled with their new baby.’ Bella handed the chart to Scott and he glanced at his patient’s observations on the graph.

  ‘They’re a lovely couple,’ he said.

  ‘Funny how the age difference doesn’t seem to bother them.’

  He glanced across quickly but Bella’s face was expressionless. ‘Was there a point to that comment?’ He said.

  Bella looked blandly back. ‘Should there be?’

  Bella picked up the charts and shuffled them. She chose one out of the stack and opened it on the way down the corridor. ‘I’m happy with Melissa’s Tina. She’s nine days old and taking all her feeds at the breast now.’

  They entered Melissa’s room and the noise that was coming from such a tiny baby made Scott smile. ‘She certainly sounds vigorous.’ He looked at the feed chart at the end of the bed as Melissa changed her daughter’s nappy. As soon as she finished the baby stopped crying and they all smiled.

  ‘I hear that Tina is doing well, Melissa. Are you happy with her?’

  ‘She’s great.’ Melissa rocked the cot. ‘This morning she hasn’t had any tube feeds. When do you think we could go home?’

  Scott pulled the stethoscope from around his neck and listened to Tina’s heartbeat. Then he watched the rise and fall of her chest. ‘She looks and sounds great. We’ll weigh her tomorrow and if she’s still over five pounds, you can go home Thursday afternoon.’

  ‘Woo-hoo.’ Melissa’s grin nearly split her face. ‘Can’t wait.’

  Scott smiled and they moved into Rene’s room where all was well. Rene nursed her baby confidently and Scott enthused over Georgia. He promised to come back the next day to check on their progress.

  After Scott left, Bella went back to take Rene’s temperature and her friend tapped Bella’s arm.