Miracle Of Life (Part 2)

It was only after she had another three contractions and I made sure that the man next to her was capable enough to support her that I left and began making some sope using the potash we had been gathering for a long time.

Now that I actually knew the requirements for just cutting the umbilical cord alone, I felt more helpless regarding the pregnant woman situation; after all, I didn't even have everything I needed to be able to cut the umbilical cord truly safely, let alone be able to help her regarding not dying during birth.

There was nothing that could be done on that front though, so for now, all that was really left to do was just wait for her to give birth. And from what I had been able to see so far, it appeared as though she could be at any stage of labor.

It was pretty difficult to determine what stage of labor she was in. Usually, at the beginning of labor, the contractions would feel mild and then work their way up the chain until they were basically unbearable.

The problem was that that didn't always happen, though, and there was a possibility that she was still in early labor and just happened to be feeling a lot more pain than others felt. Regardless I had finished disinfecting my hands and the tools, so I began to make my way to where basically everyone was.

Once I got there, I noticed more buckets of water waiting by the door, easily accessibly to the man I had left by the woman's side. It seemed like there wouldn't be a need for too much more water anytime soon though, so I signaled everyone to move away from the door before closing.

I would have preferred to tell everyone to go back to sleep, but contractions got worse as time went on. It was very clear from the volume at which she was currently screaming every five to fifteen minutes that she would be way too loud for anyone except for maybe the one baby on this settlement to be able to sleep.

Regardless as soon as that happened, I just sat down in a corner and began to just think back on happy memories of my childhood to pass the time while making a washcloth by weaving leaves, occasionally looking at the now slightly less threatening gaze from the man standing next to the pregnant woman.

Although he did certainly seem to believe me still to be a threat of sorts, at the very least, he did not act upon his basic impulses, probably because he was too worried about caring for the woman on the bed. He also seemed to have understood that the liquid coming out of her was not to be blocked.

The night passed with the contractions slowly taking more time and happening more often with the level of the screams somehow always breaking what I believed even to be possible. It didn't take much to figure out that the baby was coming, so in the meantime, I washed the blanket with some soap and water I brought inside to create a disinfected area the baby could be put on. Once everything was done.

As soon as the contractions reached a point where they were on average taking slightly more than five minutes in between each one, I took it as a sign that the child would be coming out soon, so I got everything ready, including a small, really bendy disinfected weaved plant washcloth I had made.

The screams were sort of unbearable, yet they all seemed somewhat silent when I could eventually see what appeared to be a bloody mass coming out of the woman (at least from my perspective). As much as I wanted to say something, I knew that they wouldn't understand anything I said; at the current moment, there was nothing I could do but try to secure the baby's survival, and sadly not hers.

The head came out first, followed by the body, and then the sudden eruption of crying in the room. Honestly, I was sort of impressed that after seeing what was happening, the man didn't faint, as it was pretty common; then again, I supposed, unlike people in the modern world, he was used to seeing blood all the time.

I grabbed the child and tried my best to clean the blood off him, making sure to be as delicate as possible not to hurt the baby, who was already being pretty overwhelmed by everything around him.

I couldn't waste time guaranteeing the baby to be as healthy as possible I had to cut the umbilical cord almost immediately. So after putting the baby on the area I had cleaned, I touched the part of the umbilical cord most far away from the baby until it stopped pulsating.

Once that happened, I grabbed one of the three strings I had ( I made 1 but cut it into 2) and tied three tight knots around the umbilical cord two finger lengths away from the baby's belly before adding pressure and moving all of the blood inside the umbilical cord on the side of the knot opposite to its belly further away.

Afterward, I measured two finger lengths away from the first string and then tied another one three times with the other piece of string I had left. From there, I grabbed the scalpel and cut the space in between in a direction away from the baby, effectively cutting the cord off.

Everything wasn't over yet though, as the placenta had yet to exit. However, it didn't take long for it to come out, and once that was done, I was able to thankfully confirm that the mother had not died during birth, sparing me from the guilt I would have felt if she didn't.

As for why the man standing next to the new mother didn't try to kill me when I grabbed what I assumed to be his child, and then proceeded to cut something connected to it, causing some blood to show, it was because he was too focused on making sure the now new mother was okay and still breathing.