The traffic was particularly bad; Iain cursed to himself for choosing a bigger house further from the hospital. Rita's contractions were getting worse and closer together; Iain was no midwife but he knew that she was close to being ready to start pushing; he couldn't believe how quickly this was all happening. Looking at Rita's face he could tell that she could not believe it either. They had both assumed that she would be in labour for several hours like most other people. Iain was becoming concerned that something was wrong; he had escorted several people in labour to the hospital and none of them had moved along as fast as Rita was. The ambulance came to a standstill.
"Can't we go another way Dix?" Iain called from the back of the ambulance.
Dixie looked around for possible exit routes but saw none. "Sorry mate we're stuck in this now." She spoke in resignation, inwardly cursing to herself for not using her initiative and choosing a different route. "How's she doing?"
"She can speak for herself!" Rita was irritated that everything was going wrong; she'd gone to all the classes, ate the right foods, and prepared a perfect birthing plan involving a lot of painkillers. It was all a waste. All she could think about in that moment was the fact that her body was telling her she needed to start pushing, but she really didn't want to give birth in the back of an ambulance with Iain the only medic around. Another contraction overtook her and she screamed; mostly because of the pain, but partly in annoyance.
"That great then." Dixie chewed her lip in frustration.
"Iain" Rita grabbed onto his shirt pulling him to her. "I'm going to have to do this, I can't wait." He pulled an expression of extreme uncertainty. "C'mon Iain I need you, plus you're not the one about to push a human out of you so don't you dare look at me like that!"
"Okay." Iain had gone as white as a ghost at the prospect of delivering his child; despite all of his experience, he had never delivered a baby. "Let's do this then." He started collecting instruments that he thought might be useful. "Remember the breathing exercises."
"Breathing exercises?!" Rita scoffed. "I needed drugs! This is all going wrong."
Iain inhaled deeply. He inspected Rita and sighed when he realised he could already see the baby crowning. "I can see the head." Well at least the baby seemed like it was in the correct position he thought, small blessings.
"Already?!" Dixie began anxiously tapping her hands on the steering wheel, this was rapidly becoming a disastrous situation.
"Yeah, Rita you need to give a nice big push so we can get the head out." He sounded surprisingly calm despite the freaking out he was experiencing inside. Rita made a noise so loud that Iain was surprised it could come out of such a petite person. "Okay, head is out now, you can have brief breather." He pretended he was in control and knew what he was doing; in truth he'd just watched a lot of people give birth on TV.
Iain cupped the head in his hands, becoming increasingly aware of the fact that once this baby was born he would become responsible for them. He decided that that was why labour was supposed to be longer than this, to last minute prepare yourself for becoming a parent.
"Right, we'll get the shoulders out now, when you're ready Rita." He was amazed that he was successfully delivering his child, on his own, in essentially his work office.
"Keep going." All too soon the baby was out and in his hands; he saw it was a girl. It surprised him how small she was; hardly bigger than his hands, however the cry emitted was exceptionally loud for such a tiny creature. Iain conceded that she was already taking after her mother.
He placed the baby into Rita's arms before becoming completely overwhelmed by the process and passing out.