Grantville Gazette, Volume 89 by Bjorn Hasseler

Author:Bjorn Hasseler [Hasseler, Bjorn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 1632
Published: 2020-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

“What is it? What is wrong?” Peter asked plaintively, seated in the chair next to the bed, still dressed in his grey coat over some white scrubs. In his lap, he had a stack of charts.

Linda could smell a faint whiff of salt and copper. Her legs felt sticky like she had wet herself.

“Nothing really wrong. I just accidentally broke the bag of waters. It was about to break, I believe. Ursula,” Kunigunda gestured frantically to Ursula, “could you fetch some more towels.”

After Ursula retrieved some towels from the room’s supply closet and the two nurses started cleaning up the mess, Kunigunda gave some more bad news. “I think there is some dark staining to the waters. Meconium is the up-time word for it, I think. We will have to monitor the babies carefully. I always used to see that babies with the dark streak in the waters were weak and sickly after delivery. The up-time texts advise careful removal of fluids from the nose and mouth and monitoring the baby closely.”

Then Linda was wheeled from the exam room to one of the labor and delivery rooms. I’m having two babies. I can’t wait to see them. PLEASE BE HEALTHY. PLEASE BE HEALTHY.

The eight labor and delivery rooms that stretched along the hallway were equipped to handle two to three patients if the hospital was slammed with pregnant mothers, but usually only held a single patient and however many family members came to witness the event. The staff tried to discourage large numbers, usually sending the bulk of the family to the waiting room and keeping them there until the mother and child were moved to the post-partum wing of the ward, down the other end of the hallway from the duty station.

Linda could tell from Triage and Admission that the wing was busy tonight and she would probably be sharing a room, but the room Linda was wheeled into was thankfully empty. Rank and connections appeared to have their privileges.

“Dr. Shipley will be in to see you shortly,” Ursula pronounced as she took Linda’s vitals as well as checking the babies’ heartbeats. Then she paused as she was taking the blood pressure reading. “Hmm, it is a bit high, 150/89. I shall have to see what Dr. Shipley wants to do.”

After that, Ursula flounced out of the room. Like the examination room, everything was beige, from the walls to the furniture.

Dr. Shipley came in a few minutes later trailed by Ursula and leafing through her clipboard. “Ursula, I want you to check Mrs. Wettin’s vitals every fifteen minutes. If her blood pressure goes above 165 over 95, page me immediately. I am going to call down to the pharmacy and advise them that we need some magnesium sulfate. Please have a cath tray on standby. Linda’s far enough along in labor that I would have her deliver naturally as long as everything else is going well. I hope we do not need them, but we need to be prepared.”

Then Dr.

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