Monday 5th April 2015
"Why did I agree to this?" Sam moaned as she sat on the sofa whilst Tom sat opposite her on the floor, leaning on the small coffee table, ready to write down her birth plan.
"Becuase one: I wouldn't stop pestering you, and two: you're 18 weeks pregnant and you haven't even started your birth plan." Tom stated. It was a Monday evening, and after work, Sam had changed straight into a pair of grey tracksuits, a jersey shirt, a blue cardigan and a pair of thick socks so that she was comfortable. So now she was sat on the sofa with her rounded bump resting on her thighs - not that she had a choice about it.
"Right, fire away the questions, I want to get this over and done with, and then I'm going to bed." Sam ordered.
"Did I forget to mention that the NHS print out of the birth plan is 10 pages long?" Tom smirked. "Anyway, let's get on. Your name is Samantha Kent, and your due date is..."
"Please tell me you know when our baby's due date is." Sam huffed as Tom appeared to be thinking.
"Of course I do. It's the..."
"6th September 2015." Sam stated sternly and Tom wrote it down in the correct box.
"Okay. First question: where would you like to give birth? At home, in a hospital maternity ward, in a special maternity unit, or are you not sure yet?" He asked.
"Holby City General Hospital Maternity ward." Sam stated and she watched Tom jot it down.
"Okay, tick boxes. I would like my partner/companion to be with me during labour, I would not like my partner/companion to be with me during labour, or I am not sure yet." Tom listed.
"The first one, obviously."
"Wonderful." Tom smiled as he turned the page of the birth plan. "Right, what is the name of your birthing partner? Shall I put 'my loving, handsome husband Dr Tom-"
"Just put Tom Kent." Sam ordered and Tom did as he was told, as he realised that she was in no mood for joking about.
"Am I allowed to be with you if you have forceps or a vacuum used to assist the delivery?"
"Yes." Sam nodded.
"Am I allowed to stay with you if you have an emergency cesarean?"
"Yeah." Sam mumbled as the thought of having her baby sliced out of her, and being beyond her control seemed daunting.
"Ah, now would you like to use a birthing pool, LDRP room, or any other specialist facilities?" Tom asked curiously.
"Probably not gonna use a birthing pool so put no for that one, but what's a LDRP room?" Sam asked confusedly.
"It stands for labour, delivery, recovery and postnatal room which is basically where you would stay in the same room from your admission to you and our baby's discharge from the hospital." Tom explained.
"Mm. Yeah, I want to stay in one of them." Sam nodded.
"But it does say if possible, so you're only going to get one of those rooms if it's available." Tom warned. "Would you like to keep active during labour? Yes, no, don't mind or not sure?"
"Yes, definitely." Sam nodded as she rested her hands on her bump.
"Okay, ah now you've got to choose your favourite positions." Tom said as he showed Sam the list of several different positions.
"Just put 'I don't know' because I won't know until I'm actually in labour, plus I'll probably be fidgeting the entire time anyway."
"Okay. Right, would you like your baby lifted straight on to your chest, or cleaned first? And there's a box underneath it saying anything that you would like to happen immediately after the birth so can I put that you want me to deliver the baby and that I can cut the umbilical chord?"
"Yeah sure. But I don't want the cord to be clamped straight away, I want to leave it for a few minutes for the nutrients, blood and stem cells to get into our baby before you cut it." Sam stated.
"Okay." He nodded and he took a few minutes to write a short paragraph on the birth plan explaining Sam's wishes. "And what are your views on having nurses, midwives and doctors that are training, coming to watch the birth?"
"No, I don't want them. I know before I was pregnant I'd probably say yes but... I dunno, I just want it to be me, you, a midwife and our baby." Sam explained.
"You don't have to come up with reasons, I agree with you." Tom said reassuringly. "Right, what would you like to use as pain relief?"
"Entonox. I'm not having a epidural, or injections. And no matter what I say, do not let me have an epidural."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't want to be dead from the waist down in the first few hours of our child's life and I want to be able to move about."
"Okay, ooh here's the fun bit. What are your views on having an episiotomy if necessary?" Tom smirked.
"If it's best for our baby, then I'm fine with it." Sam sighed.
"Aw, she's gone soft already." Tom smirked. "What are your preferences about delivering the placenta?" Tom asked quickly to prevent her from moaning that she had not gone soft.
"I don't have any preferences." Sam shrugged.
"Well you want it to come out naturally don't you?"
"Yeah."
"I'll put that then... Would you like to breastfeed or bottle feed?" Tom asked as he was really hopeful that Sam would breastfeed because he knew the benefits of it, but he didn't want to force her into doing something that she didn't want to.
"Breastfeed, duh." She replied bluntly which caused Tom to smile.
"Okay, final thing. Do you you have any general comments about the birth that you want to put in a box?" Tom asked.
"I don't want to be on a ward, I want to be in a quiet room, no noises just me and you."
"Well you know that that might not be possible, but I'll still put that." Tom nodded.
"Can I go to bed now?"
"Of course you can." Tom smirked as Sam heaved herself off of the sofa and then walked into the bedroom. He loved that she had a slight waddle to her walk now as her centre of balance had been changed, but he knew that she absolutely hated it. He put her birth plan in a blue folder that contained all of the leaflets that they had gotten at their first appointment, and it had the two twelve weeks scans in there too. And once he had put it safely in a draw, he went into the bedroom where Sam was laying on top of the duvet in her tracksuits and cardigan. "You not wanna get changed into your pyjamas or get under the duvet no?" Tom smiled. Sam didn't even bother opening her eyes as she grabbed Tom's side of the duvet and pulled it over her so that he had no covers on his side of the bed, and she was completely wrapped in the duvet.
Tuesday 6th April, 8:30am
Tom and Fletch were discussing a patient's care at the nurses station, when Sam arrived in her annoyingly tight scrubs with a bottle of water.
"Have management still not gotten your new scrubs yet?" Tom asked.
"No." Sam grumbled before she took a sip from her bottle of water.
"All you do is drink and pee."Tom joked and fletch couldn't help but smirk.
"And I'm currently developing your first child so my body is doing a lot more than you give me credit for."Sam said sternly.
"Oh no, Sam I was joking, of course I know you're under a lot of-
"Tom shut up, I'm not gonna start crying at every little thing you say." Sam stated as she put her water on the desk, grabbed a patient's file and headed towards reception to collect her first patient of the day. She opened a door, only her path was blocked by two young females arguing.
"Don't you dare blame me you stupid cow! It's your fault he was going to that party in the first place!"
"Can you two keep it down please?" Sam asked politely yet with a hint of annoyance.
"I've told her but she won't listen." The other woman huffed.
"My boyfriend is in there fighting for his life-"
"He's not fighting for his life, he's possibly got a few broken fingers if it's the worse case scenario!" She laughed.
"Don't try and make me look stupid-" the woman stepped forward to push the other, only Sam tried to stop it and ended up being pushed into a wall causing her to groan.
"You bitch, she's up the duff! Are you okay-"
"Sam!" Tom ran down the corridor as he had just seen what had happened. "You two were arguing earlier, now get out of this ED now before I get you done for assault!" Tom shouted and the two women thankfully left without saying another word leaving Tom to worry about Sam and his unborn child. "Are you in any pain?" He asked worriedly.
"I er, I don't think so." She replied, and it broke Tom's heart to see Sam looking so scared and vulnerable.
"It was just a knock, I'm sure you're both fine." Tom said reassuringly. "Come with me." He took Sam's hand and lead her to an empty cubicle which had an ultrasound machine that Tom had used earlier on a patient.
"Wait. What if I'm not ready to know the gender yet?" Sam said as Tom pulled a curtain around the cubicle.
"Well then don't look at the screen and I'll cover that area up before you can look." Tom stated as he put a lubricant on the transducer in one hand, and then turned the machine on with the other. "Well get on the bed then." He smirked as Sam was just stood there. "And you do realise that I'm only doing this because I want us to see our baby again right? It's not because in worried, it was only a little knock, you're both fine." Tom said reassuringly as Sam climbed onto the bed and then pulled her scrub top up.
"I swear, if someone comes in now- Jesus that's cold! Why didn't you warn me?" Sam moaned as Tom put it onto her bump and he moved it just below Sam's belly button before he paused.
"Because you knew it was going to be cold." Tom stated as he peered at the screen. "Right, we're in luck because our little rascal is showing their bum off at the moment so you don't have to worry about their gender." Tom stated as he turned the screen to show Sam the black and white image.
Sam put her hand over Tom's hand on the transducer and moved it up slightly on her bump and at an angle.
"What are you doing?" Tom asked curiously.
"Checking that there's no placental abruption because of the push." Sam stated as she looked closely at the screen.
"Well I'm no sonographer, but that looks just dandy to me." Tom stated as he forced the transducer back down on the centre of her bump and he pressed print so that he would have another ultrasound picture to put in the folder. He wiped the transducer dry whilst Sam cleaned her abdomen and then she got off of the bed and to her feet.
"Fletch have you seen the ultrasound machine?" They heard Zoe asked.
"Crap!" Tom laughed.
"Tom? What are you-" Zoe asked as she had heard his voice and she pulled back the curtain to see Tom standing there with an ultrasound scan and Sam with a tissue in her hand. "Ah, I heard about you getting pushed but I couldn't find either of you. Are you alright? Is the baby alright?" She asked and they both let out a sigh of relief that they weren't in trouble.
"They're both fine." Tom smiled as he proudly showed his boss the scan.
"Thank you for showing me your baby's bum." Zoe said sarcastically. "Now can you two get back to work and can I have the ultrasound machine." Zoe ordered. Tom looked like a naughty school kid as he reached behind him and wheeled the trolley to Zoe who soon disappeared into resus.
"Y'know, for a moment there I thought Zoe was actually gonna say something like 'take the rest of the day off'." Sam said sulkily.
"In your dreams princess." Tom smirked as he playfully slapped Sam on the bum and then walked off as he put the scan in his scrub pocket, leaving Sam to eye him up from behind.
Coming up: Sam falls ill at work and Tess works out that Sam is experiencing a bad migraine. Will Tom be able to keep Sam and the baby stressfree?
Thanks for reading, please review :)