As she looked down at the strong hand that was covering hers so warmly and the arm that was holding her tight, she wondered if Maureen and Arthur had raised two exceptional sons.
THE PLANE LANDED without incident and the medical team quickly unloaded their kits, including two portable incubators, and made their way to the woman’s partner, who had been waiting at the makeshift runway with his four-wheel-drive.
‘I’m so bloody relieved to see you,’ he began as he helped to load the equipment into the back of the vehicle. ‘I left Sophie’s best friend, Wendy, with her. She’s had four kids of her own so I figured she would be more use than me,’ he told them as they climbed into the vehicle. ‘It’s only a ten-minute drive from here but I can get Wendy on the phone for you if you like. My handfree connection’s not good so I’ll call before I start out and give you the phone.’
Jade watched as he pulled up the number. His fingers were shaking and beads of perspiration were covering his brow. The sun was warm and the air was dry. It was clearly nerves causing his reaction.
‘I have the doctors with me,’ he said into the mobile phone then put it on loudspeaker and handed it over.
‘Hi, Wendy, this is Jade Grant, I’m a midwife from the Eastern Memorial Hospital and I have with me Mitchell Forrester, a neonatal specialist, and also Emma, the Royal Flying Doctor Service flight nurse. The plan is for us to be there to deliver the twins and we are a little under ten minutes away. How far apart are Sophie’s contractions?’
‘About three minutes. I really hope you make it here. I’ve had four of my own but not in a tent and I had an epidural with all of them so Sophie’s doing it the hard way. She’s on a clean sleeping bag on all fours to help with the pain because I don’t have any painkillers to give her.’
‘Three minutes should give us time. I’m happy to hear she’s in a clean and dry environment. Can you see the head of a baby yet?’
‘Yes. The top of the first twin’s head is crowning and Sophie’s got the urge to bear down but I’ve told her to try to hold off until you get here, which I know is easy for me to say.’
‘I’m glad she can see a head,’ Mitchell said. ‘At least the first is not breech and maybe there’s a chance the second has turned in utero.’
Jade nodded her agreement with Mitchell’s comment and turned her attention back to the surrogate midwife. ‘We are only a few minutes away now, Wendy, and you are doing a great job. Just keep Sophie calm, discourage her from pushing, and if you can massage her back it might help with the pain.’
Jade kept talking to Wendy as the four-wheel-drive manoeuvred through the rough terrain to the campsite. It was obvious to them all why the man had not attempted to take his wife into town once labour had started. Jade was surprised, with the way they were all thrown about, that labour hadn’t started when the campers had first arrived. It was not the ideal place for an expectant mother to holiday only six weeks from delivery of twins but clearly by the number of tents she could see at the site, this was a majority choice holiday destination.
As they pulled up Mitchell, Jade and Emma hurriedly climbed out with their equipment. Quite a few people had gathered outside the tent that had become the makeshift birthing suite. They were all trying to offer advice and although it was heartfelt, Jade knew that it probably wasn’t helping Sophie or Wendy.
‘Please make way.’ Mitchell’s voice was firm and the small crowd parted as the medical team approached. Someone held open the tent entrance for them. They had arrived just in time. Sophie was already pushing. Jade covered her hands generously in antibacterial solution, slipped on some gloves and pulled the cord clamps from the birthing kit, along with the Syntocinon to assist with the afterbirth. She dropped to her knees for the delivery.
‘Do you want me on my back?’ Sophie managed to ask before the pain took her breath away.
‘No, you’re in a good position on all fours. It opens the pelvis right up, rather than being on your back. You’re doing a wonderful job, Sophie,’ Jade told her in a soft, calm voice. ‘Just keeping breathing slowly …’
Jade’s words were cut short by the next painful contraction.
‘Can you dampen the towel on her forehead a little?’ Jade directed Jeremy. ‘It’s warm in here and it might help.’
Jeremy dipped the towel in a basin of water that had been brought to the makeshift birthing suite earlier and began gently mopping his wife’s brow. ‘I’m so sorry, darling, that I asked you to come here. It was a stupid idea but I thought you had another six weeks or more.’
‘I’m not sorry we came on the camping trip,’ she muttered, between panting and pushing. ‘But with this god-awful pain, I’m just sorry that I ever had sex with you. And, for the record, I’m never doing it again!’
Another powerful contraction came and the first baby’s head emerged. A mass of black hair first, then a wrinkled forehead and tiny face.
‘Just push slowly as you breathe,’ Jade told her. ‘We don’t want to rush the baby.’
There were a few more contractions and Sophie’s first baby was born into Jade’s waiting hands. ‘You have a little girl.’
Mitchell stepped closer and with sterile hands he reached for the tiny girl, who was not as small as he had imagined she would be for the gestational age. Given their surroundings, he was glad there must have been a discrepancy in dates, as a low birth weight baby might have struggled with a natural birth. Jade clamped and cut the cord quickly, and Mitchell wrapped her in sterile sheeting and took her aside to check her. Emma could not put the child to the mother’s breast, as there was the second baby to deliver.
Another contraction began and the second baby was on its way quickly. A foot appeared and then with the next contraction it disappeared again inside Sophie.
‘It appears that that we are looking at a breech birth after all,’ Jade announced as Emma watched on, ready to collect the second baby so that Jade could look after Sophie during the third stage of delivery. ‘I prefer “handsoff” breech births if possible so we will be taking this slowly.’
The next painful contraction came, and Sophie groaned loudly.
Both feet appeared this time and then with each following contraction a little more of the second baby was exposed. With each breath Sophie pushed her second baby a little farther into the world. With concern on his face, her husband mopped her forehead as Jade coached her through the process. A little while later, with no intervention, the hips and stomach of the equally good-sized second baby girl emerged. Finally her little face and then her mop of thick black hair appeared.
‘Another girl,’ Jade announced.
Mitchell watched and saw that while her little heart was beating and the cord was still pulsing, she was not breathing on her own. He carefully handed the first baby to Emma, then placed an infant non-rebreather over the baby’s nose and mouth and began resuscitation. He had been prepared as it was commonplace for breech babies.
‘Breathe, baby girl,’ Jeremy called to his tiny newborn daughter.
Jade could see the panic on his face and Sophie’s. ‘Don’t worry,’ she reassured them. ‘It’s not unusual and Dr Forrester knows exactly what to do.’
A few moments