Hold her down! The elderly midwife snarled at the terrified student nurse, it's a double breech, get your knees on that bed and throw yourself across her chest and hold her down for God sake!.
Complications had set in, the baby wouldn't turn, the health centre, come maternity unit, while warm and friendly were ill equipped for such emergencies and had arranged transportation to the nearest suitably equipped hospital. .
The student nurse had been a soothing companion during the 2hr ambulance ride from the comforting homely 4-bed ward of the local maternity unit to the uninviting dimly lit cold surroundings that at this dark hour unnervingly resembled a concentration camp, set out in the wilds no one and nothing for miles, no one to hear the flesh tearing screams unleashed before birth or dawns early light.
Accompanied by the ambulance driver and student nurse I apprehensively waddled along the seemingly endless corridor the ceilings and walls deathly grey in colour with a 6 inch black rubberised border crawling up the walls from the floor. We stopped abruptly when an agitated voice echoed from the shadows getting closer with every word keeping time to slap of each footstep on cold vinyl tiles, so you've finally got here! Put her in that side ward she"ll be seen to in the morning, all the Doctors and staff are at the Christmas dinner do.
She's not feeling the best, during the ambulance journey she has had reoccurring contractions and nausea indicating first stages of labour, squeaked the student nurse while avoiding contact with the stone cold eyes protruding from the tiny raisin faced midwife. It was obvious what she lacked in size she more than made up for in authority. The elderly woman lashed out with her tongue at the young student nurse, she was aware of the stages of labour and required no lecture from an up-start not long out of nappies herself, she was also aware that the patient has received the necessary drugs to ensure delayed labour until medical assistance was available tomorrow.
