My Little Bird | Blue Eyes (Under minor grammatical editing)

Chapter 29

---- three weeks later ----

I knew from the start that there would be complications. Now they were being addressed. I sat in a large room in the back of the healing hut with Aria, Blue Eyes, my father, Ellie, and an old coworker of my mother's, his name was Armando. He was a nice man. He was from South America and carried an accent, the only remnant from his childhood. But he had a background in gynecology and, surprisingly, he was also a practiced veterinarian. I had seen him a few times before in the village, but now I was especially glad for the immediate fascination and admiration he held for the apes. As soon as Ellie had explained our situation to him, he had been more than happy to help.

Once he set eyes on me, the first thing he did was light up his face and talk about how much I looked like my mother. I was starting to get tired of hearing that. A few of the humans who had been to visit the village had known my mother, and they knew who I was to her as soon as they laid eyes on me. And a few had said so. I honestly didn't see it. My mom had been beautiful, in my opinion. Her hair had always flowed down her back, long and shiny. She had had the prettiest brown eyes, and she had a little tiny beauty mark just under her left eye. I didn't have one. In my eyes, my mother had been no less than a goddess. How could others see anything on par with Dr. Lana Harley in me? I could understand a resemblance, I was her daughter after all, but sometimes people were adamant about how I looked so much like her. I didn't understand it, but I didn't question it out loud.

Armando was a nice man, and I liked him soon after meeting him. He had a hearty laugh and a smile that made you feel happy for reasons unknown. He had much the same affect on everyone in the room as Ellie did, and it was a good quality in a doctor and veterinarian. It helped a lot, because he didn't beat around the bush once, he approached things gently out of consideration but he wasn't one to just hint at things, he flat out said it.

"Humans and apes have roughly the same gestation period, so I very much suspect that you'll be carrying for the usual amount of time, around nine months." Armando was saying. "It's more the delivery and afterward I'm most worried about.

"Labor and delivery is much longer and more strenuous in humans. Whereas the labor period for a chimp is around two hours long, humans can have up to ten to twelve hours to prepare for the actual birth. This is one of our grey areas. We don't know how much you'll dilate, or for how long. There's also the complication of position.

"Humans normally have to deliver on their backs with their legs bent at the knee, apes do not need to do this. I don't think we'll have much choice that way but to have you on your back as well. The reason the women need to lay like this is because of the longer legs." He explained. Aria had asked him to be detailed in his explanations, she wanted to turn this into a learning experience for the Obas as well. Some sat on the beams high above our heads in the roof, listening in on the conversation. Deja waited in the threshold with Cornelia and Caesar, as well. Both of them were interested to hear how this would happen.

"Another minor concern of mine is your size. Your hips seem wide enough to cause little concern, but all your proportions could mean is you are in for a bit more pain when it comes time to deliver." He shrugged at me with a sympathetic look.

I sighed. "How wonderful." I leaned into Blue Eyes, who sat beside me on a moss cot, his arms hugging my torso.

"There are only two more things I can think of that we are unsure of. How the baby will develop while in your womb, and out of your womb. A birth like this has never occurred before, so we do not know what to expect, and I cannot properly prepare you. However, I promise the both of you that I will do my best to make sure everyone comes out alright, excuse the figure of speech.