Chapter 11 #4
“What about an airlift out?” Brad asked the dispatcher he was talking to.
“We’ve got a big flat area where they can land.
Right. Got that.” He gave them the address.
“Put us first on that list. We may be good for another hour, but we need out, fast. That’s right, twins.
” He ended the call and summed it up for the others.
“They can’t airlift you out right now, Daphne, the winds are too high, the helicopter would flip, they’re all grounded.
They’ll get here as soon as they can take off again.
And the flooded areas are rising. They think they can come to you in a police boat, but that depends how far you are in the delivery.
You don’t want to deliver in a police boat in a flood.
For now, let’s sit tight, and see where your labor goes, if you’re really in labor.
You may just be feeling Braxton-Hicks contractions.
Tonight has been pretty stressful. I’m here, and your sister is the best midwife in Tennessee.
You’re in good hands. Why don’t you go upstairs and let Sofia check you?
The first responders are going to stay in close touch.
I’m not worried about you,” Brad said, and Daphne wanted to believe him.
Phillip looked somewhat reassured but not completely.
His wife was about to have twins in a flood with no way to get to a hospital.
And they were only a week early, which was considered full-term.
They both knew that in a house far from a hospital there was going to be no pain relief for her, and one or both of the twins could be at risk.
It wasn’t a good situation, and Phillip hugged Daphne as she went upstairs with her sister, and Eugenia followed. The others waited downstairs.
Sofia seemed strikingly calm as she led the way to their mother’s bedroom. She spoke in low, soothing tones, and reassured Daphne that everything was going to be great. Tucker was still sound asleep on the couch downstairs.
“Why do I have to be in labor now, with everything going wrong?” Daphne said, with tears in her eyes, as Sofia moved toward the door to get the medical bag she always traveled with. She had everything she needed in it to do a delivery, and so did Brad.
“Nothing is going wrong,” Sofia corrected her.
“You’re healthy, the babies are healthy, they’re term.
They’re a good size, and I deliver babies every day in worse conditions.
My patients would be thrilled to deliver in a house like this.
We have everything we need, like our very own hospital, with a doctor and a nurse practitioner.
First class all the way.” She smiled, disappeared for less than five minutes, and was back with the medical bag that she had brought in her suitcase.
She slipped off Daphne’s jeans and underwear, covered her with a towel, asked their mother to bring some sheets and towels, and went to wash her hands.
When she came back, she checked Daphne, still smiling and chatting softly, as though nothing untoward was happening.
If she was concerned or worried, it didn’t show for a second.
Everything was cheerful and happy around them, as Sofia smiled at her sister.
“Great news, everything is moving just as we want it to. If you hang around and don’t go into labor for a long time after your water breaks, you can get a nasty infection.
That’s not where we are, Daph. Things are progressing nicely.
Your cervix is soft and dilated, you’re at six centimeters, which is great.
Things may start to move fast in a little while, but we’re not there yet.
You’re at six without even knowing for sure you were in labor.
I think this is going to be a piece of cake.
” She made it sound like it was exactly what she hoped to find, which wasn’t the case.
Daphne was far enough along in labor that there was no turning back, and no way to slow it down.
Daphne had a contraction right after Sofia examined her. Daphne had forgotten how bad labor could be, and was starting to remember.
“I don’t want to have them now, like this. Can’t we do anything to stop it?” she asked, and Sofia shook her head.
“These guys are ready, and you know how kids are, they do whatever they want.” Sofia checked the fetal hearts with her stethoscope and said they both sounded strong.
“I’m going to check you again in a minute, I want to see how fast we’re making progress, how fast things are moving.
” But she could see that Daphne had moved into transition from the look on her face when she had a contraction.
She was concentrated, focused, and oblivious to everything around her but the pain.
She couldn’t be distracted. Sofia waited a minute after the next contraction and checked again.
It was going fast, Daphne was at eight. It was going too fast. Daphne was going to deliver long before help could reach them.
Sofia had delivered babies in much worse circumstances than this, but the hurricane and the flood made it impossible for help to get to them if they had any kind of crisis.
They were on their own, without even electricity.
“Do you want to sit up?” she asked Daphne. “Or lie on your side? What’s your body telling you?”
“That I can’t move, they’re so heavy, they pin me down, and it’s hard to breathe.
” Sofia had a portable canister of oxygen, put a mask on her sister’s face, and turned it on.
“Do you have anything for the pain?” Daphne asked, starting to look panicked as the pain got worse rapidly.
Eugenia had gone to be with Tucker, and Phillip walked into the room to be with Daphne.
Sofia filled him in, in an upbeat, calm, reassuring way, but he understood what the risks were, and how rough the delivery was going to be for Daphne.
She could get no pain relief at all, and would have to do it twice.
He felt terrible for her, and spoke soothingly to her.
Daphne was crying, as much from fear as from the pain.
She held tightly to Phillip’s hand as another contraction hit and was so brutal it took her breath away.
The contractions started coming harder, faster and closer together, as Sofia timed them, and after ten more minutes she checked her again.
Daphne was letting out a scream now when she had a contraction.
Sofia looked at her and spoke in a stronger voice.
“Daph, look at me, I want you to focus. You’re at ten, we can do this together.
On the next contraction, I want you to push as hard as you can.
” She told her how to do it, and as she did, Brad walked into the room and Sofia told him where they were in the process.
She wanted him there to check the babies, if they had a problem when they came out.
He stood on Daphne’s other side and held her leg wide, and told Phillip to do the same, to help give the babies a wide berth.
Brad’s fear was that they could be too big to deliver vaginally.
They looked like it to him, but Sofia was the better judge of that.
And he couldn’t ask her in front of Daphne.
He guessed that she agreed with him, and suspected what she was thinking, and that she hoped they were both wrong.
There was no way they could do a Caesarean here to get them out, and mother and both babies could die.
Daphne pushed for an hour and they made progress but not enough.
The contractions were fierce and she was trying not to scream, but most of the time she couldn’t stop it.
Sofia moved her close to the edge of the bed, and Phillip supported her shoulders.
She was sitting and pushing with all her might, and all of a sudden there was a gush of blood and water, and the first twin made a big move down the birth canal.
“One more really big push, and your baby’s head is going to be born.
Come on, Daph, you can do this,” Sofia said, concentrating on the first twin.
“I can’t,” Daphne said, sobbing.
“You can, ” Sofia said. “Push as hard as you can,” she told her, as the next contraction hit, and Brad saw her unwrap a scalpel and make a small incision for an episiotomy.
She kept telling Daphne to push, and all of a sudden there was a face looking at them, and a loud wail, as the baby slipped into Sofia’s hands.
“You did it!” Sofia said jubilantly. She cut the cord, wrapped the baby in a towel, and handed her to Brad.
It was Daphne and Phillip’s daughter. Their son would be next.
Sofia spoke soothingly to Daphne while they waited, and Daphne and Phillip were both crying, as they gazed at their baby girl.
Sofia let Daphne hold her for a minute, and then Brad took her again, and declared her perfect.
She was beautiful and looked like Daphne.
And then the contractions started again with a vengeance.
They were worse than the first ones and Daphne didn’t stop screaming between the contractions.
Sofia had to extend the episiotomy and their son was born ten minutes later, after six unbearably painful pushes, but it was over.
They were born, and healthy. “I am guessing seven pounds on your daughter and eight or nine pounds on your son,” Sofia told her sister, who was lying down holding one in each arm.