Alison Roberts - Midwives On-Call

And he stood at the door, calm but undeniably authoritative. This was his world, his body language said, and he knew it. Not theirs.

They had no choice.

They left.

Em felt so grateful she could have thrown herself on his chest and wept.

The last couple of hours had been a nightmare, with every suggestion she made being overridden or simply talked over by Leonie, who knew everything. But Maggie had made a promise and Maggie hadn’t been standing up to her. Em had had to respect that promise, but now Oliver had taken control and turned the situation around.

Now there were only four of them in the birthing suite. Oliver flicked the two switches at the window.

‘I’ve turned off sight and sound for the moment,’ he told Maggie. ‘If you want, we’ll turn on sight when you’re ready, but I suggest we don’t turn on sound. That way you can say whatever you want, yell whatever you want, and only we will hear you.’

‘She wants to be here …’ Maggie whispered, holding her husband’s hand like she was drowning.

‘She does, but right now this is all about you and your baby.’ He put the emphasis on the your. ‘Emily, you were about to do an examination. Maggie, would you like me to leave while she does?’

Em blinked. An obstetrician, offering to leave while the midwife did the pelvic exam? Talk about trust …

‘But you’re a doctor,’ Maggie whispered.

‘Yes,’

‘Then stay. I sort of … I mean … I need …’

‘You need Oliver’s clout with your sister,’ Em finished for her. ‘You need a guy who can boss people round with the best of them. You’ve got the right doctor for that here. Oliver knows what he wants and he knows how to get it. Right now Oliver wants a safe delivery for your baby and there’s no one more likely than Oliver to help you achieve it.’

He stayed. Maggie’s labour had eased right off. She lay back exhausted and Em offered to give her a gentle massage.

He watched as Em’s hands did magical things to Maggie’s body, easing pain, easing stress.

Once upon a time she’d massaged him. He’d loved …

He loved …

Peace descended on the little room. At Maggie’s request Oliver flicked the window switch again so Leonie and Connor could watch, but she agreed with Oliver about the sound.

As far as Leonie and Connor were concerned, there was no audio link. Any noise Maggie made, anything they said, stayed in the room.

Maggie’s relief was almost palpable, and as Em’s gentle fingers worked their magic, as Maggie relaxed, the contractions started again. Good and strong. Stage two was on them almost before they knew it.

‘She’s coming,’ Maggie gasped. ‘Oh, I want to see.’

And Oliver supported her on one side and Rob supported her on the other, while Em gently encouraged.

‘She’s almost here. One more push … One more push, Maggie, and you’ll have a daughter.’

And finally, finally, a tiny scrap of humanity slithered into the world. And Em did as she did with every delivery. She slid the baby up onto Maggie’s tummy, so Maggie could touch, could feel, could savour the knowledge that she’d safely delivered a daughter.

The look on Maggie’s face …

Oliver watched her hand touch her tiny baby, he watched her face crumple—and he made a fast decision. He deliberately glanced at the end of the bed and carefully frowned—as if he was seeing something that could be a problem—and then he flicked the window to black again.

He put his head out the door as he did.

‘It’s great,’ he told Leonie and Connor, whose noses were hard against the glass, who turned as he opened the door as if to rush in, but his body blocked them. ‘You can see we have a lovely, healthy baby girl, but there’s been a small bleed. We need to do a bit of patching before you come in.’

‘Can we take her? Can we hold her?’

‘Maggie needs to hold her. The sensation of holding her, maybe letting her suckle, will help the delivery of the placenta; it’ll keep things normal. Maggie’s needs come first right now. I assume you agree?’

‘I … Yes,’ Leonie whispered. ‘But we agreed she wouldn’t feed her. I just so want to hold her.’

‘I suspect you’ll have all the time in the world to hold her,’ Oliver told her. ‘But the feeding is part of the birthing process and it’s important. I’m sorry but, promises or not, right now my focus is on Maggie.’

Em’s focus was also on Maggie. She watched while Maggie savoured the sight of her little daughter, while she watched, awed, as the little girl found her breast and suckled fiercely.

Her husband sat beside her, silent, his hand on her arm. He, too, was watching the baby.

Without words Em and Oliver had changed places—

Oliver was coping with the delivery of the placenta, checking everything was intact, doing the medical stuff. This was a normal delivery—there was no need for him to be here—but still there was pressure from outside the room and he knew that once he left Leonie and Connor would be in here.

‘You know,’ he said mildly, to the room in general, ‘there’s never been a law that says a surrogate mother has to give away her baby. No matter how this baby was conceived, Maggie, you’re still legally her birth mother. If you want to pull back now …’

But Maggie was smiling. She was cradling her little one with love and with awe, and tears were slipping down her face, but the smile stayed there.

‘This little one’s Leonie’s,’ she whispered. ‘You’ve seen Leonie at her worst—she’s been frantic about her baby and it was no wonder she was over the top at the end. But I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you’ve given us space to say goodbye. To send her on with love.’

How could she do this? Oliver wondered, stunned. She’d gently changed sides now so the baby was sucking from the other breast. The bonding seemed complete; perfect.

‘It’s not like we’re losing her,’ Rob ventured, touching the little one’s cheek. ‘She’ll be our niece and our goddaughter.’

‘And probably a bit more than that,’ Maggie said, still smiling. ‘Our kids will have a cousin. My sister will have a baby. To be able to do this … She’s not ours, you can see. She has Connor’s hair. None of ours ever looked like this. But, oh, it’s been good to have this time.’ She looked up at them and smiled, her eyes misty with tears. ‘Em, would you like to ask them to come in now?’

‘You’re sure?’ Em asked, with all the gentleness in the world. ‘Maggie, this is your decision. As Oliver says, it’s not too late to change your mind.’

‘My mind never changed,’ Maggie said, serene now, seemingly at peace. ‘While I was having her she felt all mine and that was how I wanted to feel. Thank you for realising that. But now … now it’s time for my sister to meet her baby.’

‘How could she do that?’

With medical necessities out of the way, Oliver and Em were able to back out of the room. Leonie was holding her daughter now, her face crumpled, tears tracking unchecked. Connor, too, seemed awed.

Rob was still holding Maggie but the two of them were watching Leonie and Connor with quiet satisfaction.

‘Love,’ Em said softly, as they headed to the sinks. ‘I don’t know how surrogacy can work without it.’

‘Do you seriously think Leonie can make a good mother?’

‘I do. I’ve seen her lots of times during Maggie’s pregnancy—she’s been with her all the way. Yeah, she’s a corporate bigwig, but her life has been prescribed because she and Connor couldn’t have children. Maggie seems the ultimate earth mother—and she is—but she and Leonie love each other to bits. I suspect the over-the-top reaction we saw from Leonie in there—and which you saved us from—was simply too much emotion. It felt like her baby was being born. She wanted what was best for her baby and everything else got ignored. Mums are like that,’ she said simply. ‘And thank God for it.’