Читать книгу Midwives On Call: From Babies To Bride - Kate Hardy - Страница 13

HE HAD THE best job in the world, no doubt about it.

Aiden was rolling slowly, the red and blue lights on his handlebars flashing as he eased through the crowds on Southbank. The wide, paved area on the south side of the Yarra River offered spectacular views of the river and city from cafés, restaurants and upmarket hotels.

The gorgeous autumn afternoon had tourists and locals enjoying the exercise, food and entertainment. A juggler had attracted a good crowd and so had an old aboriginal man playing a didgeridoo. Aiden could hear the hollow, haunting notes of the music over the bike’s engine. He angled his path to avoid smudging the work of a street artist who was working with chalk and then he could see his destination. Another huddle of people, but they weren’t there for entertainment. He’d been called to a woman who’d collapsed on one of the riverside benches beneath the trees.

‘I’ve put her in the recovery position,’ a man told Aiden as soon as he’d propped the bike up on its stand. ‘I did a first-aid course last year.’

‘Good work.’ He flipped up the chinguard of his helmet. ‘Did anyone see what happened?’

‘She was walking around, looking weird,’ someone else offered. ‘Like she was drunk. And then she sat down and just toppled sideways.’

Aiden had reached the unconscious woman. He stripped off his gloves, tilted her head to make sure her airway was open and then felt for a pulse in her neck. It was there. Rapid and faint enough to suggest low blood pressure. Her skin felt cool and clammy. He shook her shoulder.

‘Hello? Can you hear me? Open your eyes, love.’

No response. Aiden looked up. ‘Does anyone know this woman? Was she with someone?’

There was a general sound of denial and shaking of heads. Aiden checked for a MedicAlert bracelet or necklace as he ran through the possible causes of unconsciousness in his head. He couldn’t smell any alcohol and there was no sign of any head trauma. The woman was young, probably in her early thirties. This could be due to epilepsy or drugs or diabetes. At least he could eliminate one of the possible causes easily. Unrolling a kit, he took a small lancet, pricked the woman’s finger and eased the drop of blood onto a testing strip for a glucometer. He also reached for his radio to give Dispatch an update. Whatever was going on, here, this young woman would need transport to hospital.

The glucometer beeped and it was a relief to see that the reading was low. Hypoglycaemia certainly fitted with the limited information he’d been given of her appearing drunk and then collapsing. It also fitted the physical signs of the clammy skin, rapid heart rate and a low blood pressure. Back-up was on the way but it would take time to get a stretcher through the crowds from the nearest point an ambulance could park and Aiden had everything he needed to start treatment.

IV access was the first priority and there were plenty of willing hands to hold up the bag with the glucose infusion. He got the small cardiac monitor out of one of the panniers on the back of his bike as well. It had only been a few days ago that he’d read an interesting article suggesting that sudden death in young diabetics could be due to cardiac problems from electrolyte disturbances.

The glucose infusion was working its magic well before he started attaching electrodes. The young woman opened her eyes, blinked a couple of times and then groaned.

‘Oh, no … it happened again, didn’t it?’

‘I’m Aiden, a paramedic. What’s your name, love?’

‘Hayley. I …’ She looked up at the crowd of onlookers. ‘Oh … God … this is so embarrassing.’

‘You’re diabetic?’

‘Yeah … I knew I needed to eat. That’s why I came along here. I was heading for the food court in Southgate. It came on so suddenly …’

Aiden could see an ambulance crew manoeuvring a stretcher through the crowd. More people were stopping to stare, wondering what was going on. No wonder the poor girl was embarrassed. The sooner they got her into the privacy of the back of an ambulance, the better.

Checking her blood-glucose levels again could wait until then as well. Aiden kick-started his bike and followed the crew, until he could park beside the ambulance. He needed to fill in his paperwork and he had a feeling that Hayley was not going to be keen to be taken to hospital.

‘I don’t need to go,’ she insisted a few minutes later. ‘I feel fine now.’

‘When was the last time you had a hypo?’

‘A couple of weeks ago,’ she admitted reluctantly. ‘But before that, it hadn’t happened for ages. Over a year.’

‘That means your control is becoming more challenging. You need a reassessment.’

‘I’ll go to my doctor. Soon.’

‘It could happen again today.’

‘I’ll eat. I’ll go and get a sandwich right now.’

It took time to persuade Hayley that it would be a good idea to go the emergency department at the Victoria but none of the paramedics were happy to let her go when she didn’t have someone with her to monitor her condition. And Aiden had something else that was bothering him.

‘Have you thought of wearing a MedicAlert bracelet?’

Hayley made a face. ‘It’s bad enough having to live with something like this, without advertising it. And have you any idea how much harder it makes it to find a job? People look at you like you’ve got a disability or something.’

Her words stayed with Aiden as he watched the ambulance take his patient away. He stayed where he was, astride his bike, watching the mill of the people he could still see on Southbank. This wasn’t a bad place to park up until he got another call. Central city and covering a patch well away from the nearest ambulance station. A young man in a wheelchair went past amongst the crowd.

There was a disability that couldn’t be disguised. And he knew what it was like to attract the intrusive attention of people who felt they had the right to ask personal questions. They’d often been directed at him over the years—as if Nathan’s brain didn’t work any better than his legs did.

‘Why’s he in a wheelchair, then?’

‘Oh, the poor boy. Can he feed himself?’

‘How does he go to the toilet?’

The guilt was always there, welded onto his soul, and the curiosity of strangers turned the screws painfully for Aiden, but Nathan had developed a resilience in his teenage years that had astounded him. He could deal with any situation now with a humour that often shocked the nosy people. Like those awful jokes he kept adding to.

‘What do you call a quadriplegic under your car? Jack.’

Despite himself, Aiden found his lips quirking. What did it matter what other people thought? Nathan had it sorted. He was happy. In fact, he was happier than he’d ever been right now. The way he’d been looking at Sam the other night … Was something going on already and, if so, how badly could that end? He needed to have a serious talk with his younger brother. Try and get him prepared for something that would hurt more than public scrutiny or pity.

His radio crackled into life.

‘Code One,’ Dispatch told him, giving him an address not far away. ‘Twenty-four-year-old female with severe abdominal pain.’

‘Copy that.’ Aiden tilted the bike off its stand and kicked it into life. He activated the lights and then the siren. Traffic was building up but he’d be able to weave through it fast. He loved a code one response and the freedom it allowed. With a bike, he got way more freedom than an ambulance to break a speed limit or use the tramlines. He just had to be a bit more careful. Hitting tram lines at the wrong angle and the ambulance would have to stop for him instead of getting to the job.

It took less than four minutes to arrive on scene. Another thirty seconds and he was in the room with the young woman who was bent over a chair and groaning loudly.

‘It’s the fish I had last night. Ohhh…. It really hurts and I’ve been sick.’

Aiden blinked. Dispatch hadn’t bothered mentioning that his patient was pregnant.

‘How far along are you?’

‘Thirty-seven weeks.’

‘And how far apart are the pains you’re getting?’

‘I dunno. It’s happening every five or ten minutes, I guess. But I’m not in labour. It’s that fish … I knew I shouldn’t be eating prawns.’

It took very little time to convince his patient that this was, indeed, labour.

‘I’m not going to hospital. I’m having a home birth. Can you call my midwife?’

‘Sure. What’s her name?’

‘Sophia Toulson. Her card’s on the fridge.’

The phone in his hand seconds later, Aiden found himself smiling again. It was surprising how strong the hope was that Sophia would be available and able to get here fast.

For his patient’s benefit, of course …

Flick was excited. This was the first home birth she had been to since starting to shadow Sophia.

‘But what if something goes wrong? Like a postpartum haemorrhage or something?’

‘We call for back-up. The Melbourne ambulance service is fabulous. And we’re not far from the hospital. In most cases, if there’s going to be trouble, we get enough warning.’

‘You didn’t the other day, with that cord prolapse, did you?’

‘No.’

And her pager hadn’t warned her that the paramedic on scene had been riding a motorbike. She could see it parked outside Gemma’s house.

‘Nice bike,’ Flick murmured.

‘Mmm.’

Those butterflies were dancing in her stomach again. How many SPRINT paramedics rode bikes in the city? It didn’t mean that she was about to have another encounter with the man her friends were all now referring to as ‘the hot paramedic’.

Except it appeared that she was.

‘Hey …’ Aiden Harrison was grinning. ‘We’ve got to stop meeting like this. Rumours will start.’

Flick gave a huff of laughter and Sophia gave her a warning glance before letting her gaze shift back to Aiden, her lips curling into a smile.

‘You did say that babies were your favourite thing but you don’t have to take over my job, you know.’ She moved past him. ‘Why didn’t you call me when the pains started, Gemma?’

‘I didn’t think it was labour. I thought I had some dodgy prawns last night because I started getting cramps just after I’d eaten. They went away for a while this morning and then one was so painful I screamed and my neighbour called the ambulance.’

‘Contractions are four to five minutes apart,’ Aiden told her. ‘Lasting about ninety seconds. Vital signs all good. Gemma’s been happy to keep walking around.’

‘Let’s get you on your bed for a minute,’ Sophia said. ‘I want to check how baby’s doing and what stage of dilatation you’re at. This is Flick, by the way. Our student midwife. Are you happy to have her assisting? It’s very valuable experience for her if she can be hands-on.’

Gemma nodded as she let Sophia guide her towards the bedroom.

‘I can stay until I get another call,’ Aiden said. ‘Unless I’m in the way.’

It was entirely unprofessional to get distracted by noticing how much she didn’t want him to disappear. Even worse to take another look at him and find it so hard to look away. Those eyes were just as warm and interesting as she’d remembered, and that smile made it impossible not to smile back.

Oh … help. How long had they been staring at each other? Long enough for Flick and Gemma to exchange a surprised glance and then a complicit grin.

‘It’s fine by me if you stay,’ Gemma said. You know you want to, her tone suggested. ‘My mum’s on her way but I told her not to hurry. This is going to take ages, isn’t it?’

‘Let’s find out. Flick, get some gloves on and you can examine Gemma and find out what her stage of dilatation is.’

Keeping her voice low, it was possible to use this opportunity as a teaching and practical experience session for Flick.

‘Tell me how you’ll make the assessment.’

‘At two centimetres I’ll be able to fit one finger loosely through the cervix but not two fingers. Two fingers will be loose at four centimetres. There’s two centimetres of cervix palpable on both sides at six centimetres, one at eight and there’s only an anterior lip or a bit left laterally at nine centimetres.’

‘And what are you feeling?’

‘Nothing.’ Flick’s eyes widened. ‘I can’t feel any cervix at all. Am I doing something wrong?’

Sophia smiled as she double-checked Flick’s findings, shaking her head at her student, who had been correct in her evaluation. ‘You’re fully dilated, Gemma,’ she told their patient. ‘Let’s check the baby’s position and then get set up. What do you need to do now, Flick?’

‘The four Leopold’s manoeuvres. First one checks the upper abdomen to make sure it’s the baby’s buttocks and not the head and then the umbilical area to locate the baby’s back and—’

‘Can I go to the bathroom first?’ Gemma pleaded. ‘I really need to go.’

Aiden helped Flick set up for the birth while Sophia stayed close to Gemma. They spread waterproof sheets over the bed and one of the armchairs in the living room and gathered some clean towels. Flick opened a kit and checked the resuscitation gear they carried in case it would be needed.

Aiden found himself glancing frequently at the door, waiting for the reappearance of Sophia and Gemma.

The attraction he’d felt the first time he’d met the cute little midwife had come back with a vengeance. Those lovely brown eyes were so warm and that smile made him feel like he’d just done something outstanding. Something that deserved approval because he’d somehow made the world a better place.

Heck … all he’d done was crack a fairly weak joke. Imagine how Sophia would look at him if he really did something to be proud of.

He wasn’t going to let his opportunity slip past. He might have made a note of the number he’d used to call her but that was just her pager service. He was going to ask for her personal number as soon as he got the chance—as long as he didn’t get called away first. Who knew how long this labour might take? Gemma was taking long enough just to go to the loo.

And she was being noisy about it, too. They heard a cry of pain. And then another.

And then Sophia’s calm voice. ‘Could you bring a couple of towels, please, Flick? Lean on me, Gemma … Yes, that’s your baby’s head you can feel. Deep breath and give me one good push …’

The wail of a healthy newborn could be heard a moment later and Aiden moved to peer in the bathroom door at the crowded scene. Gemma was still sitting on the toilet and Sophia was guiding her hands to help her hold the slippery baby against her skin. Gemma was sobbing and Sophia looked … as if she was blinking back tears?

‘She’s gorgeous, Gemma. A dear wee girl … Flick, have you got the clamps and scissors? Gemma, would you like to cut the cord?’

‘No …’ Gemma shook her head.

Somehow, Aiden had moved further into the small space without noticing and he was now blocking Flick’s access to the toilet. Some signal passed between Sophia and her student and Aiden found himself holding the clamps in his gloved hands. He attached one a few inches away from the baby and then another to leave an isolated area to cut. He’d done this before and knew to expect how tough it was to cut through the umbilical cord.

He already felt involved in this birthing scene but then Sophia smiled at him again.

‘Can we give baby to Aiden for just a minute, Gemma? I’d like to get you cleaned up and comfortable in bed to wait for the placenta.’

Flick gave him a clean towel and Aiden carefully took charge of the tiny infant, with Sophia’s assistance. This was the closest he’d been to her and he could smell the fragrance of her hair. Almost feel the warmth of her skin through the gloves as their hands brushed. And then he looked at the tiny scrunched-up face of the baby and got completely distracted.

The miracle of birth never failed to amaze him but he never wanted the responsibility of one of these himself. The enormity of bringing a new person into the world and trying to keep them safe for ever was overwhelming. As he backed away, carrying the precious burden in his arms, he looked up to find Sophia watching him.

He couldn’t read the expression in her face but it struck him as poignant and something inside his chest squeezed hard. But then it was gone. She smiled and turned back to her patient.

‘Put your arm around my shoulders and we’ll take this slowly. You might find your legs are pretty shaky.’

The five-minute Apgar score was a perfect ten and Aiden returned the pink, vigorously crying infant to his mother. There was no reason for him to stay on the job any longer and watch as Sophia guided Flick to help the baby latch onto Gemma’s nipple and begin its first breastfeed.

And then Sophia supervised Flick in attending to the delivery of the placenta and checking it for any damage, and it really was time for him to leave. He stripped off his gloves and picked up his helmet and kit.

Flick was giving Gemma a wash with a hot, soapy cloth and Sophia was putting the placenta into a bag. This was it—the best opportunity he was going to get. He stepped closer.

‘I know you were busy last time I asked,’ he said casually. ‘But are you doing anything special after work today?’

Wide, surprised brown eyes met his gaze. ‘Not really,’ she said, ‘but I won’t finish for a while. We usually spend a few hours with a new mother and make sure she’s happy before we go.’

‘Maybe we could meet up later, then?’

Gemma looked up from watching her baby suckle. ‘Are you asking Sophia for a date?’ She grinned.

Flick was staring at Sophia and seemed to be stifling laughter. What was going on here?

Sophia tied the bag and stripped off her gloves. Her cheeks had a rosy glow and she seemed to be carefully avoiding meeting his gaze. ‘It’s not about a date,’ she said. ‘I happen to owe Aiden a coffee, that’s all.’

She made it sound like that was the only reason he might be interested in taking her out. Aiden couldn’t let that pass.

‘Yeah …’ he said slowly. ‘I’m asking for a date. Would you like to come out with me this evening, Sophia?’

‘Um … I …’ Sophia bit her lip. ‘Maybe you can call me later. We’re both at work and this isn’t, you know, very professional.’

‘I don’t mind,’ Gemma said.

‘And I’m not going to tell anybody,’ Flick added. She looked as if she was trying not to smile. ‘Was that a yes I heard there, Soph?’

There was definitely an undercurrent here that Aiden had no way of interpreting but right then Sophia met his gaze again and he didn’t care about anything other than hearing her say that word.

‘Okay. Yes.’ He could see her chest rise as she took a deep breath. ‘I’d love to go on a date with you, Aiden.’

‘Cool. I’ll pick you up about seven? Where do you live?’

‘How ’bout I meet you somewhere? A nice bar, maybe?’

So she didn’t want him to know where she lived? No problem. When you had a three-dates rule, it was probably better not to intrude too far on anyone’s personal space. Aiden named a trendy bar that he knew wasn’t too far from the Victoria, guessing that Sophia probably lived reasonably close to where she worked.

‘I know it.’ She nodded. ‘I’ll meet you there at seven.’

At six-thirty p.m. Sophia was staring at the pile of clothes on her bed.

It might be a cliché but she really didn’t have anything to wear. Nothing that would project the image she wanted anyway, which was one of a confident young woman who wasn’t the least bit desperate. Who was happy to go out and have a bit of fun but wasn’t looking for anything remotely serious.

Something frilly? She didn’t possess frills. Something low-cut that would show a bit of cleavage? No. That might send entirely the wrong message about the kind of fun she was after.

What was she after? And why was she feeling so ridiculously nervous?

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake.’ Wearing only her jeans and bra, Sophia went to rummage in her handbag for her phone. She would text Aiden and tell him she couldn’t make it after all. One of her patients had gone into early labour? Yeah … perfect excuse.

And she wasn’t really breaking her promise, was she? She had said yes. She just wasn’t going to follow through and actually go on the date.

A small problem became apparent the moment she picked up her phone. She didn’t have Aiden’s phone number, did she?

She had absolutely no way of contacting him unless she fronted up at the bar in … oh, help … twenty minutes.

But there was a message on her phone. For a hopeful heartbeat Sophia thought that Aiden might have sent her a message to cancel the date.

No such luck. He didn’t have her number either, did he?

The message was from Emily. ‘I hear you said yes,’ it said. ‘You go, girl. And have fun.’

So Flick had spread the word. Her friends would demand details and she was a hopeless liar. Her voice always got sort of tight and high. She’d never be able to make something up and sound convincing.

Gritting her teeth, Sophia marched back into her bedroom. She jammed her feet into knee-high boots, threw on a camisole top and covered it with a velvet jacket. Pulling the band from her hair, she raked her fingers through the shoulder-length waves and spent no more than thirty seconds in front of the mirror, putting on a slick of lipstick.

Then she grabbed her bag and slammed the door of the cottage behind her. She had less than ten minutes to get to the bar but having to rush was probably a good thing. It would give her less time for her stupid nerves to grow wings.

There was no sign of Sophia.

Aiden ordered a beer and stayed at the bar, an elbow propped and his posture relaxed enough to suggest he was thoroughly enjoying his view of the women coming in through the doors. Enjoying the appreciative looks he got in return even more.

Normally, he would be doing exactly that.

So why did he feel … good grief … nervous?

A little out of control even?

Maybe it was because he was meeting Sophia here, instead of having picked her up first. What if she didn’t show up?

Hey … no problem. There were plenty of very attractive women who seemed to be here unaccompanied by any male friends.

But he hadn’t come here to randomly score. He’d come here because he really wanted to spend some time with Sophia.

And maybe the strength of that want was why he was feeling a bit weird. Why this was assuming an importance that it wasn’t allowed to have.

No problem. Aiden took another fortifying swallow of his beer. This was only a number-one date. No big deal. If it continued to feel weird, he could just pull the plug and there wouldn’t be a number two.

Suddenly, he saw her. Looking small and a little bit lost as she stood near the door and scanned the crowded bar. And then she spotted him and smiled.

The noise of the people around him and the background music seemed to fade away.

The people themselves seemed to fade away. Until there was only himself.

And Sophia.

How weird was that?