Chapter 188

"First, Ellingham, I can assure you that this was not an emergency. I agree that it should have been looked into at the first convenient time, but arranging an appointment for Monday would have sufficed." He told me with a raised eyebrow. Well, it's easy to say afterwards, but I always followed the rule to be better safe than sorry, when I was the doctor as well as when I was the patient. Still, it didn't bother me particularly what Dr. Green thought about this. Louisa, on the other hand, looked at me accusingly.

"Incompetent cervix?" I asked for confirmation after what I picked up from the examination.

Dr. Green nodded.

"How severe?"

"Mild case." Dr. Green leaned forward, stapling his fingers. "I see in your notes that this is your second pregnancy. Did you have any complications giving birth previously?"

"Well, it was all a bit...rushed." Louisa started. "I was on a way to the pre-natal in a taxi, when the driver crashed into some boulders on the moor."

"Stupid pig had produced his own Diesel and blinded himself with the toxic fumes." I explained, still enraged about the irresponsibility of such idiotic behaviour just to save a few pennies.

I noticed Dr. Green smiled at this interjection, although I failed to see anything amusing about reckless behaviour.

"The impact must have caused the water to break." Louisa continued. "Thankfully Martin had been chasing after me and arrived not long after. He brought us to a pub and organised an ambulance, well, and after that everything went rather quickly. Without complications."

"I see." Dr. Green leant back in his chair.

"So what's wrong? Is there any problem with the child?"

"There is a slight problem, but no need to worry. Part of your birthing canal, the cervix, is already more dilated than it is supposed to be at this time. Therefore, there is at times some 'leakage'. At an earlier stage during pregnancy, this would have been a bigger problem. As the foetus is reasonably well developed, I trust that there will be no complications."

"Will you induce the birth?" I asked.

"No need, I would say. The length of the cervix is borderline. With a bit of rest we should get the time of birth closer to the due date. You probably agree that it will be favourable, to allow natural development for as long as possible."

"I agree." I shared Dr. Green's view wholeheartedly.

Louisa looked from one to the other. "Nice that you two agree." She commented rather tersely. "Still, I would like to know what I am getting myself into."

"Admittedly, we cannot rule out that the baby might be a bit premature. This is often the case with cervical weakness, but for the moment there is no reason to expect anything to happen soon. We will decrease the interval for check-ups and keep an eye on the length of the cervix. Until then, you should keep off your feet as much as possible, as the weight of the baby is pushing onto the cervix more when you are standing up."

"I'm a head teacher. I need to be standing in my class or the pupils won't see or hear me."

"That's why I will write you a sick note for the rest of your pregnancy. You must stay at home as much as you can, keep the weight off your feet and thereby off the cervix. You may sit in a reclined position or lie down. You shouldn't sit straight or be standing more that absolutely necessary. This might delay the birth as much as possible and we might actually get close to the due date. Any further questions?"

Louisa looked flabbergasted, but I could only agree with his recommendation.

"Well, if that is all, then I can go back to my in-laws. Maybe I can still help with preparing lunch."

Dr. Green got up and led us to the door demonstratively, while pushing the sick note into Louisa's hand.

"Don't look so smug!" Louisa hissed at me when I opened the door for her while my eyes fell upon the note.

On the way back to the car I had to try hard to get in front of Louisa to keep the doors open for her. She was biting her lip and looked quite thunderous.

I didn't quite understand, as the appointment had gone quite well, in my opinion. Mother and child were OK and with a bit of due care, we could hope for a natural birth at an appropriate time. That was the best outcome we could have hoped for under these circumstances.

While rushing along the corridor I was already thinking on how to organise the optimum care for Louisa so that she wasn't home alone at any point, as I still had to be at hospital four times a week, but I was confident that it should be easily arranged to have Ana or Ruth around at any time.

To be continued...

Thanks to the reviewer who pointed out the mistake. I corrected it accordingly.