Birth

"Something is wrong".

And around the bed the war broke out. Monitors beeped frantically. People dressed in green began to give emergency instructions, and to follow them frantically. Doctors sweat. Nurses rushed. Chisels changed hands, disappeared in flesh and came back, bleeding, into cold metal trays. A respiration machine hiccuped, restarted, and hiccuped again, painfully beeping.
Out of the depths of the epidural anesthesia, Edith felt a dull pain spreading across her hips , crawling up her back, clutching her gut and sendings tentacles up her chest. With every breath she took the doctors around her lost color shades, and the bright lights dimmed. The hospital bed slowly sank out of the room, into a black, steaming, swirling hole underneath. A dark, deep turbulence.

Later, the doctors told her what happened. But what do they know, the doctors.

"The baby got no pulse."
" 2 CC adrenaline. Quickly."

Between the splayed legs a needle was sent. Pricked. Left.

"There’s a sinus".
"Okay. Let’s continue with the operation."

Amidst the dim mists, Edith felt the black hole continuing to swirl beneath her, getting closer, getting bigger, pulling her down. In despair, she continued to hold on to fuss over her, grasping the blinding lights and the faint cries of the doctors. But the bed continues to sink down, down, her outstretched hands finding no grip in the black cloud’s lips.
Later, they told her that she lost consciousness. But what do they know about consciousness, the doctors.

Out of the black hole, she just barely saw a red face in a green mask, looking down at her, saying resuscitation team shouted bring bring bring bring resuscitation team bri ...

And the black hole closed off, above her.

---

Inside it was actually red. A huge space, soft, rich in echoes and shades.

The pain was gone. Edith found she was floating naked in hot liquid, surrounded by thick ropes and pulsing tubes. The light was soft and dim, coming from no special place. It just radiated through the walls, lighting the world in a misty, reddish hue. Edith reached for one of the pulsing tubes, but a violent wave in the liquid tossed it a short distance to the right, allowing her ---

And she saw him.

So small, so huge.

A baby. Her baby.

In a monstrous proportion. Floating, angel-like, in a giant womb.

Her baby.

But something was wrong. A coarse umbilical cord was wrapped around his soft neck, tightening, choking. In front of her astonished eyes, the baby opened his new, tortured eyes, screaming in silent agony. A bad, desperate cramp spread across his gentle face. Weak hands feebly rose to his neck, trying in vain to pry off the navel Strangler. A bold head took on a bluish hue of death.

Edith kicked and lunged forward.

Later, the doctors told her they were fighting for the life of the child. But what do they know about war, what do they know.

She came to the baby quickly. Wildly did She swim, anxiously piercing the amniotic fluid. But when she hovered within reach of her huge tiny baby, initial doubts sprouted and grew rapidly in her mind. Can I actually move him?

Absolutely not. She felt like a mouse next to an elephant.
But she tried.

She pushed.

Choking, the baby squirmed violently.

Edith leaned her naked back on the uterine wall, feet on the baby’s belly, and pushed flat. Severe pain shocked her back, belly and hips.

Push!

Slowly, but noticeably, the huge body turn.
Too slow?

The bluish baby stopped twitching. Halted. Lifeless hands floated in space, without power, without the ability to move.

Push!
Edith pressed again. The huge body turned around, and the ties around his neck loosened. And again! And the tie has weakened further. And again! And again!

Her feet were hurting, her back muscles were screaming in pain, yet again she pushed. And again.

Motionless. With no response.

The loose body of the baby kept turning around, now completely freed from the death grip of the umbilical cord. Yet motionless. With no sign of life.

Alone, in her big red space, she began to cry.

But suddenly stopped. Far above her, a big needle penetrated into the warm space, searching, wandering. It pricked the baby just below the buttocks, paused a second, vibrated slightly, and left.

A second went by.
Two.
Three.

And the baby went wild. His arms and legs kicked, lashed out. The young mouth cried, cried, and the soft eyes widened. For the briefest of moments, Edith met the baby's anguished gaze and saw how he focuses on her, seeing her, her.
Her.

And she could feel tremendous pressure in her stomach bursting through the throat and eyes, tearing into the wild fluid, and she saw her baby calming down suddenly, reaching curiously to her, and she saw an angelic smile, illuminating the interior of ...

Edith banged her head, and dived new darkness .

---

Later, when the baby looked up at her, resting in her lap, the doctors told her what happened. How it was. They told her everything. Without missing a thing. They told her about the effort. The complication. The despair. The medical miracle and the new hope.

Edith heard it all passionately. She listened well, eagerly devouring every word. She smiled in the right places. Said thank you. She looked deep into the tiny eyes, and saw that wonderful smile spreading over his lips, and said she was very tired, andher back hurts.

They told her they knew.

But what do they know, the doctors, what they know.