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"Make her laugh?"

"Yeah Laughter is good for everyone I didn’t used to know thatOh, yeah, every hour or so check the baby’s heartbeat again"

"Yes Yes Dr Blu fast I’ll oes on to tell me how to support the perineum, how to check for a cord around the neck, how to deliver the shoulders without a tear, and how to get the baby to breathe if it has trouble Then she describes what I do in the third stage of labor, the ilant, watch for a show of blood, never pull on the cord, and so on

"And I have a suction bulb in my birth kit" She tilts her head "Which will be your birth kit for a while, Beckyif you are willingI know you’re reluctant, but that’s what makes you brave Even when you are scared you do what needs to be doneThese are the women who are due in the next six months" She hands me a short list

Brave! I think as I stare at the na to be able to do this? The first name on the list is Lilly Bittman

"Childbirth is such an intense experience," theinto e me "Think of it The es Everyone must move over to make room, every person, every rock, every tree, every star, and the ed to witness thetoo fast, I know I a to deliver without n in Liberty, make a U-turn in the middle of Main, and pull up in front of Bitt to remember all the instructions I wrote down

It’s three AM, and no one’s around, so the U-turn doesn’t rocery store would be closed at night and the way into the young couple’s apartment is up the back stairs

I make another U and cut down the alley, where I have to decide which stairs are the Bittmans’ I hadn’t realized that all of the storefronts on Main have stairs in the back, but I finally decide the one with the lights onPatience’s birth satchel, I take the steps two at a ti, I stop for a few hten my top If I had time to take my own pulse, I’m sure it would be one hundred and twenty! Breathe, I tell myself, like I was the one in labor Breathe

Then I knock twice on the back door " ’Bout tihs (He sure is calh on the telephone he certainly sounded like he thought she was

"I cao How’s Lilly?"

"Come in You’ll see" He leadsher newborn infant with her little boy in his paja next to her on the bed

"See how soft he is," the sightless wo her five-year-old, her face calm and radiant "Oh, Miss Becky! I’ about the same tio How does he look? I can tell he’s healthy because he cried right away Does he have all his parts? Ielse"

The young blind wo around?"

"No, I heard you"