Read Online Emily Taylor - The Teenage Mum by Vi Grim - Free Book Online Page A

well.
Ijju is sitting on the side of her bed with a shawl wrapped around
her shoulders. I reach up and touch the necklace she gave me in
Khartoum, twiddling with the little coins. It used to look so good
against her chocolate skin. I wish she knew that I'm with her now.
She has a few little contractions but nothing is really happening.
Zula's mum, Nwella, comes in and lays a couple of towels on the bed
and tells her to get some more sleep.
Great idea. I do the same.
Through the worm I can feel her
contractions. As dawn approaches they get stronger and wake me up.
Then they cut in real strong. The pain is muted through the worm
but is still very real. At first she grits her teeth and just
grunts a little but as they get stronger and more regular, she
crumples up her face and screams against the pain. I go to make a
cup of tea but have to sit down when Ijju has a contraction. I
wanted to see what it'd be like but this is a bit too first hand.
It's her baby, not mine. I turn off the worm and make some tea and
toast and sit outside and watch the sun come up, fretting about
what lies ahead.
I let the sun rise up into the
sky, and a little higher still, then click my fingers and visit
Pollux's moon.
    He has Ijju up
on high resonance radar. It still gives a good picture but is not
quite so hands on as the worm. She's standing up
against Nwella and is being helped by another woman. She's covered
with sweat and her face is strained. She screams loudly in the
contractions.
'Pant, pant, pant,' says the
lady, trying to get Ijju to control her breathing.
'Com'on, com'on, you're
almost there.' says Nwella.
I can see a dark lock of hair
showing. Ijju screams loudly and strains, making the veins stand
out on her forehead. The baby's head comes into view. The lady
holds her hands gently against the baby's head, and eggs Ijju on,
'Here it comes, one more push.'
One more scream.
Whoosh!
Out it pops in a flood of blood
and goop. The lady collects the red baby in her hands, quickly
checks it over, and hands it to Ijju who pulls it firmly against
her chest and sits down on the bed. The baby gives a little cough
and a whimper.
'It's a boy!' says Pollux. 'It
wasn't too bad, was it?'
Maybe I shouldn't have watched.
I have to sit down. I put my head on my knees and cry.
'Wasn't that neat,' says
Pollux, trying to cheer me up. 'Out it popped, a new life. Shall we
watch some more?' The cockpit screens fill with images of women in
different stages of childbirth, panting and screaming and begging
for mercy.
It's more than I can
bear. I click my fingers and are in bed, cowering under the
covers.

 
     
     
10
     
It's scary being pregnant.
There’s all sorts of things that can go wrong: the baby can die, or
worst still have some serious disability. What's more there's all
the nasty side effects the go with being pregnant: you pee, you
cry, you throw up, you fart, you get clown feet, and you get
stretch marks and saggy boobs. Scariest of all is that at some
stage you have to give birth. Then there's the chance that you will
die from bleeding or infection. The death rate is really high where
there’s no decent medical facilities, like here.
He hasn't kicked yet, maybe
there's something wrong with him. I do hope he's okay.
'He is one hundred
percent a-okay,' says Pollux. 'Do you want to know if he's a boy or
a girl?'
'No, please don't tell
me.'
That's a relief. The baby is
okay, I only have farting, certain death and childbirth to worry
about. Maybe I need a midwife.
'I'll help,' offers Jesus.
'Do you have any experience?' I
ask.
'A little bit,' he answers.
'But it was a couple of thousand years ago.'
'It would be lovely to
have you there,' I say, 'but I need a mid-wife; someone who knows
what they're doing to guide me through it and do the right thing if
there's a problem. I'm sure Dr Florence could do it.’
     
Summer arrives and so do my
books. Azziz delivers them along with a big box of supplies: jelly
beans, Marmite, Maltesers, Hula Hoops,