Birth

Jane and Robert saw the girl on the front steps before she saw them. It was cold and the girl was wearing a coat, but sitting oddly with her legs somewhat apart. Most people sat with their knees together in the cold. Her head was bent, her arms crossed in front of her.

Jane started up the walk, "Um, hi?"

The girl looked up. It was the girl who had called Jane the devil's whore, she was crying. "I'm sorry about your house."

Jane realized this girl was the one who had been spray painting the house. "It's okay." Then she waited.

The girl said "I don't have anywhere to go."

"What do you mean?"

Then she stood up. Her bulging stomach proceeded her. Water was running down her legs, pitter-pattering on the concrete of the front walk.

"I think the baby's coming."

Jane thrust her hand out and felt the top of the girl's swollen abdomen. Jane closed her eyes, feeling for the ripple. The skin under her hand tightened slowly but strongly. The girl moaned.

Jane opened her eyes and looked at Robert "Started now." Robert nodded, looking at his watch. Jane closed her eyes again.

"Ow! Ohhhhhhhhhhh. I huuuurrrrrrrts! Ahhhhhhhhhhhoooowwwwww!" The girl was bending over almost double. Jane struggled to keep her hand where it was.

Jane absentmindedly said "Don't say ow, say 'oof'. Like you're trying to pick up something heavy. Don't fight the way your body wants to breathe."

The girl gasped in a big breath and moaned on the exhale until she was totally out of air then gasped in a big breath again.

Jane felt the muscles she was feeling relax. "Okay, that one's over."

"Thirty seconds." Robert looked at Jane. "We should take her inside."

"Wait a second." Jane put her other hand inside the girls coat and felt along the bottom of her baby bulge. The girl smelled like a basket of fresh strawberries, sweet and ripe. When she exhaled her breath smelled of honey. Jane's hands felt the baby's position, definitely descended, ready to come into the world. The muscles were twitching, getting ready to contract again.

"Oh yeah, you need to come inside. How long has this been happening?" Jane helped her new friend up the steps to the house. "Please come inside."

"It started early this morning. I'd hoped it wasn't really happening but it is. I didn't know where to go! I... I... I....." then she burst out sobbing.

"It's okay, we're going to take care of you. I'm Jane." She was taking the girl's coat off. It was soaked through the back as were her clothes. Jane fished a handkerchief out of her pocket and blotted up some of the liquid. The color was clear, good, no blood or brown.

"I'm Rachel." She bent over and began to moan again.

"Okay, we're going to call an ambulance, they'll come and take you to the hospital."

"No!" the girl shrieked. "No! Don't! No one can know! They can't! Please!" She breathed in again and then panted until the contraction passed.

"Rachel, it will be alright. Women get pregnant. It's what our bodies are designed to do. You're about to give birth, like Mary." Jane ran her hand along the girls face.

"No. He'll take the baby. Remember when you asked me if someone was hurting me? Yes, he was. He said I'd be his wife in spirit but I know he lied to me." Rachel swiped at her face.

"Okay then. We'll just have to deliver the baby here. Bobby, I'm going to need a bunch of towels..."

Robert interrupted "hot water, soak a scissors in boiling water, put the birthing stool in the bathroom. See? I pay attention." He grinned and loped off.

"Let's get you to the bedroom. I'd like you to walk as long as you can, the gravity helps. We're going to do this a little differently than what you think." Jane gently led her to the bathroom where Robert was putting a short, wooden stool with a wide top next to the toilet. "Now, I'm going to have you squat. On this stool, lean on the lid of the toilet with your arms. If you think you have to throw up just lift the lid. First, we have to get you out of your wet things."

Jane helped Rachel undress tossing her sodden shoes and tights in the trash. Rachel put on the cotton jersey robe Jane gave her. Jane usually advised women to labor naked, but she suspected the girl would want to be covered up. The robe would be open on the bottom so Jane could catch the baby, but would cover up her back so Robert couldn't see. They stopped three times for contractions.

Rachel squatted and leaned. "Now, I need you to let me look between your legs." Jane laid down on her stomach so she could see what she was doing. She waited until the next contraction and saw everything bulge slightly.

"Very good. You're doing great. The baby is going to come very soon. The contractions will probably not hurt as much. But you're going to feel one that burns like fire. Like nothing you've ever felt before. That's the baby coming out. You won't have to tell me when you feel that because it will make you yell. "

Robert slipped in with a pile of towels. He'd heated them in the oven so they were comfortingly warm. He set aside a hooded baby towel. He left the room, then reappeared with a glass measuring cup containing steaming water, scissors resting there, points down. He pulled a ball of kitchen string from his pocket.

Suddenly Rachel blurted out "I need to push!"

"Then push. You're body knows what to do. Let it happen, don't fight it." Jane wasn't surprised. Rachel had probably been clenching against the contractions and dilation all day. Jane suspected she'd dealt with the transition stage on the front steps, sitting there all by herself in the cold. This girl was one tough cookie.

"I'm too hot!" Rachel shook off the robe and sweat began to run down her face. “Does it have to be so light in here?” Many women who labored wanted to be in the dark so this didn't surprise Jane.

Jane wetted a cloth in cold water and wiped the girl's face. She was about 16 and very pretty. Hopefully, she'd taken care of herself so the baby wouldn't need any emergency care. Jane could deal with minor things, but if the babe was premature or had a very low birthweight they'd need to go to the hospital. And taking the baby out in the cold worried her.

Suddenly, Rachel screamed and tensed up. The baby was crowning. Jane grabbed a towel and saw Robert peeking through the door. He loved watching babies being born. He said it was a priviledge to witness the miracle and he never missed an opportunity. Jane had suggested he become an RN specializing in labor and delivery, but he currently preferred website design. His face was intent and solemn, he took new life coming into the world very seriously. It meant the world was going to contiune to go on. The zealots were wrong. The end of the world wouldn't come with fire and brimstone, it would come with barrenness and women who couldn't quicken. There would simply be no more children.

Jane laid down on the floor as Rachel gave a tremendous push. Her son came sliding out into Jane's waiting hands, felt the cold and began to cry. Rachel burst into tears. Robert grinned with tears running down his cheeks. Jane wrapped the baby boy in the hooded towel and handed him to his mother.

Rachel had slipped off the stool onto the floor. She stared down at her baby.

“It's a boy.” Jane told her. “See? Just like Mary. When she gives birth, every woman becomes a holy vessel, bringing life into the world. Rachel, you are blessed among women to be a mother.” Jane longed for children of her own, but that didn't happen for her and Robert it was just the way of it.

“If you decide to keep him or if you decide it would be best for another family to adopt him, you'll still be a mother. And you'll still be blessed for that.”

Rachel was dumbstruck. She gaped at the baby, who had quieted now that he was snug and warming up. Jane saw the cord was no longer pulsing. She tied it off and cut it with the sterilized scissors. It would need to be watched closely.

Rachel stiffened, closing her eyes. “Is it another baby? Oh no! Oh no!”

“It's just the placenta, it will fall out on it's own.” It decended and Jane caught it, placing it in a bowl that Robert had left for her. He'd been so quiet bringing it in neither woman had noticed him.

She looked up at Jane. “We don't have anywhere to go.” Tears began to stream down her face. “What am I going to do? What am I going to do?” She rocked her new son and cried.

“Why don't we try your church? I think you'll be surprised.” Jane had found that mothers would help other mothers in most instances. She'd known an old woman who would take offence to the word 'illigitimate'. She'd yell that it wasn't the baby's fault it was the parents that were illigitimate. Babies should be taken care of!

“No! We can't he'll take the baby from me! I know he will! Please Jane no! Please, please let me just take him to the hospital, I heard they'll let you leave babies there.”

Jane hugged the girl, patting her wet hair, soaked with her sweat. “Why don't we just try? The worst that will happen is that we'll take him to the emergecy room where they'll take care of him and find him a home. But I'd like to try first.”

Rachel's body was wracked with sobs, but she nodded.

“Now, why don't you have a bath? You'll feel better. Robert will give the baby his bath. Don't worry, Robert loves babies and has lots of practice with them. Jane took the bundled baby and passed him to a still crying Robert, who hugged him. Pressing his forehead to the baby's.

“Welcome to the world little man. Welcome to the world. We are so glad you are here.” his tears fell on the baby's face. When he raised his head the boy studied him with and intense concentration. Robert turned to get him ready for his first wash.

There was only one Mormon church in town, Jane looked up the number and dialed.

When the phone was answered by a female voice she said “Yes, my name is Jane and I have a young woman at my house who I think is a member of your congregation. She needs some help. Her name is Rachel ---”

“Did she have the baby?” the woman had cut her off.

“Uh, yes she did.”

“Is she okay? Is the baby okay? We were hoping she still had a couple of weeks. I wish she'd come to one of us. We've been telling her that sometimes things happen to people that aren't their fault and the people in their community help them. She's so ashamed. That poor girl.”

Jane was dumbfounded. Her mouth simply hung open.

“Of course we'll help her. We've already talked about it, those of us who know what's going on. She can't go back to her parents, the jerks, so I'm going to take her in. It's God's will that I was answering phones today. As a matter of fact, I'm only watching them while my friend went to Starbucks.“

Two hours later a woman pulled up in front of Jane's house in a minivan, already equipped with an infant car seat. She walked up to the house with a small duffle bag. The windchimes sang her a welcome and Jane opened the door for her.

She was about 50 with fading blonde hair. She smiled shyly at Jane.

Jane held out her hand “I'm Jane. Welcome, I'm so glad you're here. Rachel did wonderfully and the baby is beautiful.”

“Marcia.” She shook Jane's hand and followed her to the bedroom. Robert was sitting on the bed holding the baby. Jane heard the shower running and knew Rachel was cleaning herself up.

“Hello, I'm so glad to see you. Young mister here has wet his pantaloons. Well, would have wet his pantaloons if he'd had any on. Instead, he wet me.” Robert said. This broke the tension and they all laughed.

Marcia unpacked the duffle which held diapers, baby clothes and blankets.

She expertly took the boy from Robert, got him dressed and then swaddled him with swift, confident hands.

“My children loved to be swaddled. I didn't get any good at it until my last one. I'd come back to their cribs and they'd be waving their arms around looking confused.” Marcia laughed at the memory.

Marcia looked down at the baby. “Spitting image of this father. That son-of-a-bitch.” She shook her head. “But it's not this little one's fault his father's a no-good. He has a few half-siblings too. No need to worry. There are some of us who caught on and we're dealing with it.”

Jane looked at the woman, shocked. There was a statutory rapist in their community but they weren't calling the police?

“I know what you're thinking. Why don't we turn him in? The mothers are all over the age of consent. And consent they did. He could convince a tea party member to vote for a hippie liberal.”

She looked up at Jane with a frank look, “Just because I'm Mormon doesn't mean I believe in polygamy and women having a baby a year until their bodies give out. And not all of us will just sit by and let a man take advantage of young women who's parents didn't give them all the facts they needed. This little chap's father will be receiving a call to a church in north Alaska quite soon.” she looked down at the baby “Yes. Yes, he will. Yes he will. And he won't bother your momma aaaaaany more. No he won't. No he won't.

Rachel came out of the bathroom with wet hair wearing Jane's robe. She stopped short when she saw Marcia.

“Rachel. You and the baby are going to go stay with Marcia and her family.” Jane said.

Rachel blinked. “Th-Thank you Sister Marcia.”

“Oh. It'll be good to have a tiny one in the house again. What are you going to name this little butterball?” The baby was plump for a newborn, at least 9 pounds.

“I'm going to name him Jacob. After my grandfather.” Rachel said decisively.

“Well, you get dressed and we'll take Jacob and his mom home.” Marcia stood up with the baby in one arm and hugged Rachel with the other. “And it's going to be fine.”

Jane went and sat with Robert. They held hands as they looked at the new family.