wait. She didn’t intend to jeopardise her job for anyone.
She needed to work and she wanted to work, and no chauvinistic Italian was going to stop her. However much he made her knees knock.
Despite her worries about the time, Tia arrived early and the first person she saw was Sharon.
‘Are you mad at me?’
Tia slung her bag into her locker and changed into her uniform. ‘I should be.’
‘But you’re not?’ Sharon looked at her hopefully. ‘What happened? What did he say about Luisa?’
Tia turned the key in her locker. ‘I didn’t mention Luisa.’
‘Why?’ Sharon looked horrified and Tia stopped dead and let out a long breath.
‘Because I want him to tell me himself, not just because he thinks he’s been found out.’ Her chin lifted. ‘I don’t want a relationship where we have secrets. Remember my parents? When my mother found out about my father’s affairs she was devastated. She’d always trusted him.’ Tia felt the familiar feeling of anger swell inside her. Anger towards the man who’d ruined her mother’s life. ‘I will not have a relationship with someone who keeps secrets.’
Sharon’s expression was cautious. ‘But what did he say? Did he just want to yell at you for leaving him at the altar?’
Tia frowned. ‘Funnily enough, that hardly figured in the conversation. I’ll say this for the man, he’s a very cool customer. He seemed almost indifferent to the chaos I caused. He was more concerned with discussing the future.’
Sharon’s eyes widened. ‘So there is a future?’
Tia shook her head. ‘Not as far as I’m concerned. He obviously wants to be around for the baby, but that’s not enough for me.’
Sharon looked puzzled. ‘Are you sure that’s really the reason?’
‘Of course.’ Tia pulled herself together, dropped the locker key in her pocket and made for the door. ‘I need to get on. Mrs Adams was about to feed the baby when I walked past so I said I’d help her. I’ll do her check afterwards.’
‘OK, thanks.’ Sharon followed her out of the staffroom and Tia made her way to the four-bedded side ward.
‘Hello, Fiona. How’s the feeding going?’
‘Really well.’ Fiona looked up with a smile. ‘Someone’s helped me put her on the breast every time, but she seems to latch on really well and she only fed three times in the night. I thought that was pretty good.’
‘Absolutely.’ Tia leaned over the cot and stroked the downy head with a gentle finger. ‘Were you a good girl for Mummy? Did you agree on a name?’
Fiona nodded. ‘She’s going to be Megan.’
‘Nice. Well, in that case, Megan, it’s time for breakfast.’ She scooped the baby up firmly and handed her to Fiona, watching carefully as Fiona tried to put the baby on the breast herself.
‘That’s great, Fiona. You’ve both really got the hang of it.’
Tia stayed with Fiona until she was happy that the baby was feeding nicely and then moved on to help another new mother.
Before she’d even pulled the curtains around the bed, Sharon called her.
‘Sorry, Tia, would you mind going up to labour ward to give them a hand? They’ve had six admissions in the last two hours.’ Sharon rolled her eyes and walked up the corridor with Tia. ‘Chaos. And, of course, they’ll all end up down here.’
So Tia hurried to the labour ward and introduced herself to Nina, the midwife in charge.
‘Would you mind looking after Mrs Henson for the time being?’ Nina checked her notebook. ‘She’s only four centimetres and not coping well at all. We’ve bleeped the anaesthetist and he’s coming to do an epidural. And do you mind having one of the student midwives in with you? She needs to get a few more deliveries.’
Tia nodded. Student midwives had to deliver a certain number of babies under supervision before they were allowed to qualify.
Dawn Henson was a twenty-two-year-old woman, having her first baby, and one look at her face was enough for Tia to realise that she was terrified.
‘The pain is so much worse than I imagined,’ she gasped, her knuckles white as she grasped her husband’s hand. ‘I really, really wanted to have a natural birth but I don’t think I can stand it. I feel such a failure.’
‘You’re not a failure, Dawn,’ Tia said firmly. ‘Labour isn’t a competition. The pain is different for each individual and everyone copes in different ways. I think you’ve made a wise decision to have an epidural.’
Dawn bit her lip. ‘But I didn’t really want to have one. I’m terrified of having a needle in my spine. What if it goes wrong?’
‘It won’t go wrong.’ Tia looked up as Duncan Fraser, one of the anaesthetic consultants, walked into the room. ‘Here’s the person to talk to. Dr Fraser will explain everything to you.’
Signalling with her eyes that Dawn was more than a little anxious, Tia busied herself getting things ready for the anaesthetist.
Duncan talked quietly to the couple for a few minutes, explaining the procedure and the risks involved, pausing while Dawn had another contraction.
‘OK, I need to start by putting a drip in your arm.’
Tia handed him a wide-bore cannula and Kim, the student midwife, checked Dawn’s blood pressure.
‘All right, Dawn, I want you to sit on the edge of the trolley for me—that’s it.’ Tia helped her to adjust her position until she was as comfortable as possible and waited while Duncan scrubbed up.
He put on a sterile gown and gloves and positioned himself behind Dawn. ‘All right, I want you to tell me if you feel a contraction coming so that I can stop,’ he said quietly as he gave the local anaesthetic into the skin.
Duncan nicked the skin with the scalpel and introduced the Tuohy needle, advancing it cautiously towards the epidural space. He checked that the needle was in the right place and Tia watched Dawn carefully, knowing that even the slightest movement at this stage could result in a dural puncture with unpleasant consequences for the patient.
Fortunately Dawn remained still and Duncan quickly threaded the epidural catheter through the needle and withdrew the needle.
‘All right Dawn.’ Duncan glanced up briefly and then returned to his task. ‘I’m going to inject a small dose of anaesthetic now.’
He gave a test dose and then taped the epidural catheter in place and attached an antibacterial filter to the end. Tia timed five minutes and then checked the blood pressure.
Satisfied with the reading, Duncan gave the remainder of the anaesthetic dose.
‘All right, Dawn, Tia is going to need to check your blood pressure every five minutes for the first twenty minutes just
