‘Cara, I would give you anything. But what is the use of following your every wish for the centre and then you choose to birth at our villa in Rome?’
Tammy shook her head stubbornly. ‘I don’t want to get out of this bath.’
Leon perched on the edge of the tub and regretted he’d made it so large. Large enough for two but not for two and the birth of his child. ‘They will have the pool ready for you at the centre. I promise. They’re dying to have someone use it. You could be the first.’
‘Misty and Emma have to be there.’ She sounded plaintive and he wanted to smooth the worry lines from her face.
‘Of course.’ He’d agree to anything. He was confused and anxious and totally bewildered by the sudden change in his calm and level-headed Tamara.
The boys were with Gianni and what had begun as a slow romantic day before the birth of their child had suddenly turned into a mutiny he hadn’t expected.
He smoothed the hair from her forehead. ‘Come, cara, I will lift you out.’
She sighed and he watched her gorgeous shoulders sink below the surface of the water as if savouring the last pleasure to be had from the day. ‘I’m sorry, Leon.’ She gazed up at him and he saw the flicker of uncertainty in her beautiful eyes. ‘I think I had a panic attack when I realised today was the day.’
She reached for the handles at the edge of the bath and quickly he lent down to take her hand. She smiled with relief as she slipped her hand into his and prepared to climb out. ‘Which is silly. Because I’ve done it before, and I know I’m designed to do this.’ He didn’t know if she was talking to herself or to him so he nodded encouragingly, trying not to pull her up so fast she’d realise how scared he was she’d change her mind.
She went on musingly now. ‘But for a minute there I didn’t want to admit that the time is here.’
She stood, her magnificent roundness running with water and bubbles and acres of shiny taut skin that made him bless the magic day he was allowed into her heart.
‘You are such a beautiful Madonna with child, my wife.’ His words came out gruffly, filled with bursting pride and a smattering of fear for the unknown. He needed to have her and their baby safe and then all would be fine.
The drive to the hospital was accomplished with typical Italian chaos but, for once, traffic parted before the assertiveness of an extremely worried father.
Their journey from the front door to the birth room was faster than the speed of light so that Tammy felt quite giddy in the chair Leon had cajoled her into. ‘Slow down, for goodness sake, before all my endorphins run for the hills.’
He slowed, just, and she chuckled to herself at this man, her husband, this anxious, gruff, darling man who was so unsure of the next few hours that his usual calm had been totally misplaced.
Her own moment of doubt was long gone. She knew all would be well. She knew her baby was waiting to meet them with the same anticipation she felt.
The ripples of conversation followed them. The Bonmarito baby was coming. No doubt there would be a hundred people in the waiting room when the boys arrived. It wasn’t her problem. Her husband would sort that out.
They were through into the birth suite now. The eggshell blue of the rounded walls greeted her like a long-lost friend. She’d spent hours pouring over designs and new innovations to create the perfect birth space. No angles or corners, just soft and rounded curves and a welcome like a mother’s arms.
The pool water lapped gently, waiting for her arrival, and against the large window overlooking the shifting branches of a huge tree outside, Misty and Emma also waited. Both women smiled in understanding at the harried look on Leon’s face when he came to a halt in front of them. He looked down at his precious cargo and began to smile sheepishly. ‘I may have panicked for a moment there.’
‘For only a moment,’ his wife murmured with a smile as she lifted herself out of the chair and was embraced first by Misty and then by Emma. She glanced at Leon. ‘Perhaps you could ask someone to take the chair away, darling, while I get organised.’
Leon nodded and hurried away. The three women laughed softly until Tammy began to sway as the contraction built and they stood holding her as she leaned against them. She breathed in deeply, her belly pushed low with the breath in her lungs, and then a downward out breath full of power and rightness.
Misty held the Doppler and they listened to the steady clopping of Tammy’s baby’s heartbeat as the contraction faded away and was gone. Then a quick rest back on the couch while Misty ran her gentle hands over the smooth mountain of Tammy’s stomach, finding the baby’s head well fixed deep in the pelvis, baby’s back to the right and all as it should be for the final descent.
‘The bath, I think,’ said Misty.
Tammy nodded and her loose sarong fell to the floor with her underwear. Before they could move, the next pain was upon her and her two attendants smiled at each other and glanced at the door.
‘I want Leon.’ Barely had the words left her mouth and he was there. Kicking off his shoes and snatching at socks, shedding his trousers and plucking off his shirt until his powerful shoulders rippled freely as he leaned down and lifted her back against him for a moment before he stepped easily into the bath with Tammy safe in his arms. ‘I am here, my love. Lean back against me.’ And they sank into the water.
Tammy lay back against her man, safe and secure, surrounded by the warm cradle of buoyancy and her husband’s arms. The bath gave the ease of movement she hadn’t wanted to leave at home and the ability to move her cumbersome body to each new position with a gentle shift of her arm. As the next pain rolled over her she closed her eyes and breathed. The water rose and fell and her belly heaved with the life of her baby within.
She knew Leon’s arms held safe around them both. Her fellow midwives would watch over them all until the journey was complete, and her heart was calm.
When Tammy’s baby entered the world she was born into the silence of warm water, the welcoming hands of her mother about her, and lifted gently to the surface to breathe her first breath under the awestruck eyes of her family.
Perfetto. Except her father was crying.
Paulo and Jack Bonmarito scowled at the visitors. The new Lyrebird Wing of the Bonmarito Cura Nella Maternitá postnatal wing in Rome was crowded with well-wishers and they couldn’t get near the door to their new baby.
‘It’ll be a boy. For sure,’ Jack muttered, and Paulo nodded glumly. With three boys the new one would have to be favourite but neither said that out loud.
The boys looked at each other and shrugged and searched for Leon in the crowd.
‘Who are all these people?’ Jack asked.
Paulo chewed his lip. ‘Acquaintances of my father. Business partners, patients, relatives of people from our village.’ He shrugged. ‘They will go soon.’
‘Jack?’ Paulo tapped his shoulder to attract his stepbrother’s attention. ‘I do not understand how the baby is born.’
Jack looked at him. He had a hazy idea but didn’t really think about it. Or want to. ‘Ever been to a farm? Seen animals give birth?’
Paulo nodded and then paled. ‘You are serious? Who told you this?’
‘Mum. That’s what she did at Lyrebird Lake. What all the midwives do. Usually in the bath. People go there to have their babies. Mum catches ’em and cleans ’em up when they come out.’
Paulo had trouble getting his head around that. ‘Does it hurt, do you think? For the woman?’
Jack shrugged and packed away the deep fear he’d been fighting with all morning. What if his mother died like Paulo’s mother had? ‘I’ve never heard a cat or dog complain. What about you?’
Paulo shook his head weakly. ‘I feel sick.’
Jack grinned, suddenly glad his new brother shared his fear. It was amazing how much better he felt when he realised he wasn’t the only one afraid. ‘And you’re going to be a doctor? Let’s find Dad.’ In the end it wasn’t hard to find him because the door opened and their father
towered over everyone else in the room.
Leon gestured to the boys and they pushed their way through. ‘Come, boys. Come and meet your new sister.’ Jack and Paulo looked at each other and a slow, incredulous smile mirrored on both faces. Jack fisted the air. ‘Yes!’
Leon swept them in and they saw Tammy. Serene and smiling, sitting calmly in a recliner chair, not looking like she’d done much at all.
Jack sighed with relief. She was okay. Mum was okay. That hard lump in his throat was going away. Well, he guessed all she’d done was catch a baby of her own in the water.
Nestled in Tammy’s arms, curled like a kitten, was a tiny, pink-faced baby, with dark, soft curls piled on her head. She had the softest, rounded arms and tiny starfish hands that fisted up to her chin and mouth. She blinked at them.
‘Look at her eyes,’ Jack whispered, and he peered over Tammy’s arm at the baby and Isabella blinked as if desperate to focus on her new big brother.
Paulo nodded. ‘And her fingers,’ he whispered back. ‘She’s got tiny fingernails.’
And across their heads, Leon and Tammy exchanged loving smiles full of promise and pride and wonder at the blessings that surrounded them.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8974-5
MIDWIFE, MOTHER…ITALIAN’S WIFE
First North American Publication 2011
Copyright © 2011 by Fiona McArthur
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Midwife, Mother...Italian's Wife Page 13