Whatever It Takes: Day 7

 Word Count: 42,015

Summary of Events:

Josiah struggled to focus on the bit of class-related work he had to do after supper, owing to a great desire to continue reading Evangelina's favourite book — which he'd been loathe to pause reading the night before — but was able to get it done, only to be interrupted in his reading by a summons to the slums, as  his landlady engaged in ministerial visits to the slums of Edinburgh not unlike Evangelina did in Glasgow, and needed his help. He later recounted what happened to Evangelina in a letter . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

I do believe Mother secured me a room in the Campbell home so that I could accompany Mrs. Campbell in her ministries, however, my classes do keep me quite busy and prevent me from being able to offer much for aid, on one hand, on the other, I do believe Mrs. Campbell is sufficiently medically capable to handle most of what she is presented with, and that she also is not inclined to trouble me unnecessarily.

However, two nights ago she sent a man to fetch me to his home, where his daughter was in distress and even Mrs. Campbell didn’t know what the problem was.

The daughter is fourteen years of age, and was complaining of abdominal pain. I was rather at a loss of what to do myself until I noticed that, although Mrs. Campbell had reported the young woman to have rather explosively relieved herself in the bed in which she was lying, that there wasn’t the odour of ammonia, even when I put my nose quite near to the wetted blanket.

I then enquired as to what the pains felt like and was told they felt like someone seizing about and squeezing her abdomen quite tightly, leading me to a suspicion that the fluid the young woman had discharged was, in fact, amniotic fluid, meaning that she was giving birth to a child, despite being little more than a child herself.

Owing to Mrs. Campbell having delivered six children of her own — at the least — I sought her advice, and I will share it with you, as I did find it rather a fascinating idea, and especially as I’ve spoken with her about it in days since.

When I told her my suspicions that we were attending on a childbirth, Mrs. Campbell urged the young woman to rise from the bed and squat, instead, at the foot of it.

Apparently Mrs. Campbell, with her third pregnancy, had discharged her amniotic fluid, but wasn’t feeling that birthing was imminent, and so was doing something while upright, when she felt rather as if she needed to relieve herself, but yet not quite.

Suspecting it was her baby, she assumed a position so as to relieve herself, but over a pillow, and, after a bit of strain to bring out the shoulders, delivered the baby quite easily — especially contrasted with the long and painful deliveries of her first two children — and from that point onward she refused to lie down while birthing; her husband came round to the idea eventually.

Although I must confess it was a touch of a challenge to know what was going on, the young woman certainly seemed in lesser distress once she was upright, and the delivery went quite smoothly, yielding a healthy mother and child, and leaving me without regretting that I had brought no medical equipment with me.