Sandi Sieger asks Fiona Palmer, author of The Sunnyvale Girls, to share a story about the first time she had a baby.
The first time I… had a baby she was born breech. Of course, I had the perfect pregnancy, felt fabulous the whole way through up until labour. But a few hours into labour my doctor tells me the baby is breech and it’s past the point of a caesar.
I was well into my pain by this stage so he may have well been speaking Spanish for all I cared. I just nodded.
So after 9 hours of pain, which I managed on my own, it was time for my daughter to arrive. (I tried some happy gas, but it made me sick. Not so happy gas.)
Now because she was breech, the doctor had to make a few cuts. I won’t go into details but my doctor had regretted wearing his jandals to work and my husband was rather pale at the sight of all that blood. Me, I was still oblivious to it all.
My daughter arrived and was checked out by the nurses. She was healthy with all fingers and toes. Due to coming out with her feet around her ears the nurses had a bit of trouble measuring her.
They wrapped her up and handed me my first baby. She had blue eyes and the finest scattering of soft red hair. I can remember looking at her in disbelief, still not sure that she was mine. (I hadn’t counted on strawberry blonde hair, but should have as it’s in the family.)
While I was acquainted with my girl, I remember the stab of a needle as the doctor went to work fixing up his incisions. Thirteen stitches all together, internal and external. I only glanced at the doctor once, watching him pull back this huge needle before I refocused on my baby. (It reminded me too much of shearers sewing up sheep with a big needle and thread.)
Amazingly, my husband was still by my side and not passed out on the floor. He wasn’t game to venture down past my waist mind you, so he played it safe.
It wasn’t until after I was settled back in my room did I learn how worried the doctor had been about the breech birth. To me he was so calm as if it was any other normal birth. And for that I’ll always be grateful.
Fiona Palmer lives in the tiny rural town of Pingaring in Western Australia, three and a half hours south-east of Perth. She discovered Danielle Steel at the age of eleven, and has now written her own brand of rural romance. She has attended romance writers’ groups and received an Australian Society of Authors mentorship for her first novel, The Family Farm. She has extensive farming experience, helps out with the local mail run, and was a speedway-racing driver for seven years. She spends her days writing, helping out in the community and looking after her two children. Fiona is the bestselling author of The Family Farm, Heart of Gold, The Road Home, Sunburnt Country, The Outback Heart and The Empty Nest. Her latest novel, The Sunnyvale Girls, is out now.
You can read about the first time Kerri Sackville fell in love here.