Page 14 of Twisted Devotion
I give her hand a squeeze and murmur, “You’re safe, the mom is safe, and so is the baby, thanks to you and the amazing team around you.” She gives me a nod, but I can tell she’s still not fully in her head, but I can’t blame her for needing time to process.
The reason we only had Daniella is because Audrey developed HELLP syndrome after delivering and almost didn’t make it herself. So now when she has a patient develop it, it usually makes for a rough day for her.
On top of Audrey almost not making it through delivery, watching her struggle through postpartum left me feeling completely useless in more than one way when it came to trying to make her feel better.
We decided before Daniella’s first birthday that we were done having kids. A quick vasectomy on my part, a sample left a month later, and we never had to worry about that again. Wewere able to spoil Daniella without endangering Audrey’s life again, and honestly, my life has been more than complete with the two of them. Now that Daniella has been away at college for almost three years, Audrey and I have fallen into our new normal, and it’s been amazing. We, of course, miss our daughter, but she visits on the holidays, and she is enjoying being away from her boring old parents, so I don’t question a thing.
* BOB BARKER - Cowboy Killer, Yelawolf
* HER - Chase Atlantic
CHAPTER
TEN
AUDREY
“The new midwife was great to work with last night, and the midwives only have one patient on the floor as of now. You’ll have to let me know how the delivery goes with her. She seems to be a great addition to the midwifery team,” Brittney, the charge nurse from last night’s shift, tells me as she gives report.
We have a team of ten midwives who work with their own patients, and the OBs only step in when patient care falls outside of the midwives’ scope of practice. And depending on which doctor is on shift, sometimes they’ll monitor closely and still let the midwife deliver, which is something I love so dearly about Springs Hospital.
I take a break from scribbling notes on my Post-it and give Brittney a bright smile. “Oh, I’m so glad that she’s fitting right in. I can’t wait to work with her today.”
After finishing report, I go through my normal check-in with my three patients today. Two are GP1, meaning it’s their first pregnancy, low risk, and in the early stages of labor. Both are still in early labor. Plus before Brittney left she checked on the Midwife patient.
I continue running through the checklist to make sure my staff have what they need and that there aren’t any fires to put out yet. My favorite anesthesiologist is on for a twenty-four-hour shift, and all of our aides are thankfully here as well.
Today is going to be a good day.
Everything should be smooth and uneventful, but I won’t say it out loud because we never know what wild turn a birth can take. Blood pressures are looking great, all the babies are staying on the monitors, and we surprisingly have a couple of open beds, so I head into the midwife’s patient room to introduce myself.
“Hi, I’m Audrey. I’ll be your nurse for today.”
The patient is sitting on the birthing ball swiveling her hips as the doula squeezes her from behind, applying counter pressure through her contraction. Instinctively, I check her portable monitor as she hits the peak of her contraction.
She takes a deep breath as she comes completely out of the contraction and releases it. “I’m so sorry about that. I don’t know where I go when these contractions hit me,” she says sweetly.
“Don’t you dare apologize. How are we feeling? Baby looks amazing, your vitals look amazing. Do you need anything from me?”
Her eyes remain closed as she breathes in and out. “I’m doing amazing.”
There’s a quiet knock at the door. “Just wanted to pop in?—”
“Stevie?”
As she gets closer, I see the CNM behind her name. It does in fact read, Stevie. My shock must be evident because I haven’t seen her since my daughter’s senior year of high school, right before they graduated.
I know it’s probably unprofessional to do in front of a patient, but I can’t stop myself from wrapping my arms around her in a hug.
She grunts slightly when I squeeze her, and squeaks out, “Yeahhh, that’s me…”
Stevie’s never had any social media, so I have no clue what she’s been doing since high school. When Daniella moved away to go to college, they didn’t talk as much. She was always so smart and grew up with an absolute piece-of-shit mother, so she was at our house more often than not.
When I pull back, I grab her shoulders and feel like I could cry looking at her. A look of shock flashes across her face, but I’m sure it’s because I’ve bombarded her in the patient’s room when she was ready to work. She shakes her head slightly, and I watch as her professional mask slides back into place.
She’s no longer the teenage girl I knew back in the day. Now, she’s completely covered in tattoos from what I can see, her black hair is longer than she used to keep it, and most importantly, she’s a midwife. I feel the tears starting to well, and the bridge of my nose starts to feel heavy. Happy tears form knowing she took control of her life after the shitty hand she was dealt.
“I’m so glad to have you here with us, Stevie.” She gives me a soft smile. “I have so many questions, but I’ll let you do your job, and we can chat out here after.”
