Page 167 of Certified to Handle You
Each time, I pushed, my hands gripper Pressure’s arm tighter. My body was working harder, and Pressure stayed right here with me, talking low, rubbing my arms and kissing my shoulder like he could take some of it from me if he tried hard enough.
“Come on, baby,” he whispered. “You almost there.”
I didn’t know how much time passed after that because everything started blending together, but I felt it when things changed again.
There was one push that felt different from the rest.
“Right there, Pluto,” Auntie Treasure said, her voice just a little more stern now. “Give me one more just like that.”
I pushed with everything I had left in me, my body shaking as I leaned forward while the pressure built so strong that it felt like it was splitting me open. For a second I didn’t even know if I could do it again.
“Right there, Pluto,” Auntie Treasure said, her voice calm m as she stayed close, guiding me through it without letting me panic. “Do not stop now. Give me one more just like that.”
I cried out under my breath as another contraction came, stronger than anything before it, and this time I bore down withit, gripping the edge of the tub while my whole body worked with everything it had left.
It burned. It stretched. It felt like too much, and just when I thought I couldn’t push anymore, something changed.
“Good,” Treasure said, her tone softening just a little. “That is it… right there…”
Then I felt the release that followed it. It was sudden and overwhelming as my body gave way and everything that had been building finally moved through me.
My body dropped back against Pressure, my strength giving out all at once while I tried to catch my breath, and before I could even process what had just happened, a small cry filled the room.
It was soft at first, then stronger, cutting through everything else.
“Aww…” Auntie Treasure said, and this time there was warmth in her voice. It was something lighter than before as she looked down. “It is a girl.”
For a second, everything felt still, and everything felt light as I tried to catch my breath, my body barely able to keep up with everything it had just done.
I heard Pressure clap his hands behind me with a breath of disbelief leaving him. “Yeah!” he let out, laughing low. “That’s what I’m talkin’ about.”
Auntie Treasure moved carefully between my legs, supporting the baby in her hands while the cord still connected us, and I felt her gently guide her upward before bringing her closer to me. I barely had the strength, but I looked down just enough to see her. She was small and wet. She was beautiful with a head full of hair. Her little cry filled the space while Auntie Treasure worked quickly but calmly to make sure she was breathing right and clear.
“Look at her,” she said softly, adjusting her. “She is perfect.”
I tried to smile, I really did, but my body still didn’t feel right. Instead of that relief settling in the way I thought it would after everything I had just pushed through, something else started creeping in that I couldn’t explain.
It was a strange heaviness that sat deep in my body, mixed with a weakness that didn’t match what I had just done. While Auntie Treasure’s movements shifted around me, but I barely caught it because I was still trying to steady my breathing.
Then I felt a lot of blood…
At first, it blended in with the water, but it kept coming, and spreading in a way that didn’t feel normal, and when I finally looked down, my head already started to feel light.
“Auntie Treasure…” I said, my voice faint. “I don’t feel right.”
She didn’t answer right away, but I heard the change in her breathing, in the way she moved.
“Pressure,” she said. Her tone was still controlled, but there was something under it now. “I need you to help me get her out of the tub.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked quickly, his arms already moving around me.
“She’s bleeding more than I’m comfortable with,” Auntie Treasure replied, still calm but firmer now. Even though I heard her, the words didn’t sit right in my head the way they should have, like my mind was trying to catch up to something my body had already started reacting to.
All I really knew was that I felt weak, and not the type of weak that came from pushing a baby out or being tired, but something deeper that made it hard to hold on to myself. It felt like my strength was slowly slipping away while I sat here trying to understand what was happening.
Pressure helped lift me carefully, wrapping me in towels as they got me out of the tub and on the floor mat.
“Stay with me, sweetie,” Treasure said, her hands moving quickly now as she worked, trying to manage what was happening.
