Debt

29: Birth Plan

Abrielle could smell the paint, but she wasn't allowed to go and see what was being painted. Shawn was being really secretive about the whole nursery and kept it locked when he wouldn't be around to keep her out of it.

Now it was Easter break, and he had Evan and Larielle in there doing something, but she wasn't allowed to see.

Abrielle sat in her armchair, looking at her swollen feet. She couldn't wait to get this baby out of her. Just thinking about that led her to look at her birth plan, seeing if there was anything she had changed her mind about in the last six weeks.

Abrielle and Shawn went out to visit Nurse Carla and get a check up on their little boy. Nurse Carla sat down after the sonogram part and looked at the young couple seriously.

"Abrielle, I don't want to freak you out, honey. Okay?"

"Okay. Is everything fine with the ba-"

"He's fine. But you will be giving birth soon. And I want you to understand that nothing will go exactly the way you want it to. But it's a good idea to have a birth plan in order. You're not in a hospital, and this is 100 percent in your jurisdiction. Well, more like half yours and half Mother Nature's. How you want to do it, I'll make sure you get to as long as you can. Do you understand?"

Abrielle nodded. Nurse Carla handed her a small packet of papers with the words Abrielle's Birth Plan watermarked on each page.

"So I want you to take a look at that and get it back to me ASAP. I want this experience to be as comfortable for you as it can be. Having a child is a beautiful thing. Giving birth the way nature intended... Well... I've done it and I've watched over sixty women do it. And you can do it too."

Abrielle looked down at the paper, over at her husband, and back at Nurse Carla. "I was told that having a baby outside of a hospital is stupid and dangerous."

"Having a baby is dangerous period, Abrielle. However, I have a feeling you already knew that. I once had a woman say that giving birth outside of a hospital is actually unnatural. Can you believe that? I suppose women have always been hooked up to IVs with pushy doctors since the beginning of time."

Abrielle made a small breath of a laugh at Nurse Carla's bad attempt at humor. She did appreciate it at least.

"Listen to me, Abrielle. I'm just as qualified to deliver your baby as any obstetrician. But the difference is that I don't back you into a corner and tell you how to do it. I listen you tell me what you want and make plans just in case things make a turn. Do you think your husband would have hired me if he didn't think that this was safe for you to do?"

Abrielle looked over at Shawn. And she could honestly say that she felt that whatever Shawn did for her, he did it with the intentions of it being the best. Her safety was always a factor. So her safety along with their unborn's played a big role in who he hired for the job.

"No," Abrielle answered softly.

Nurse Carla patted Abrielle's hand reassuringly. "Don't worry, honey. Believe me, in hospitals, they cut women who don't need to be cut. They give you drugs that numb you even after the birth but you still feel the baby come down. They give you a really stressful environment. How is that conducive to having a baby? Now, this is what you're provided with: comfort and no one making you feel you have to do this a certain way, no more interference than is necessary for the health of you and your son, and the support of a practitioner who has only you to focus on. I am at your beck and call twenty-four hours a day. How's that?"

"I think I'm glad I'm not doing it in a hospital."

Nurse Carla smiled and Shawn helped his wife up. "Thank you," he told the midwife. She smiled and the two let themselves out, heading up to the main house, Shawn massaging Abrielle's back on the way.