The beginning
Rural country
setting 1970’s
Yuh alright!?.…. Eeeh!? My mom’s mom (Mama) kept asking as
the ride to the hospital progressed. This question didn’t make sense, Mom was
in pain. How alright could she be? Nevertheless, Mom nodded in agreement.
Probably did so because she was in too much pain to do anything else.
Dad and Newby (the driver) were sitting up front, but every
time Mama asked this question, Dad would turn around to see what Mom’s response
would be.
Compared to everyone else Dad was a nervous wreck. Lucky for
Mom two veteran child-bearers were seated beside her on the back seat, Mama
(mother of 7 children) was to the left and Greta (Newby’s wife, and mother of
4) was seated to the right.
Although it was a full two weeks from her due date, Mom was
feeling contractions, and to make matters worse she was spotting. She knew that
the contractions she had been feeling may not have been real labor pains, but
she knew that spotting was a danger sign, and needed to be attended to quickly.
Consequently, we were making this trip to the hospital.
Mom could have asked the mid-wife to look at her, but since
she was not going to be one of the midwife's patients, she knew that she would
probably be seen last that day. So rather than taking her chances with the
mid-wife or at the nearby clinic she asked Newby the only one who owned a car
in the district to take her to the Hospital.
Traditionally it was the mid-wife that cared for the
pregnant women in the district, up to and after delivery, however, Mom had
chosen to go the non-traditional route by registering with the hospital; the
only in the district, Port Maria Public.
The main reason for her decision was Aunt Tita's experience.
Just a few months earlier Aunt Tita had had a terrible experience and she was
determined that the same thing would not happen to her.
Tita had decided to have her baby at home, the conventional
way, with the mid-wife to assist. But the baby breached and Tita could not
deliver the baby. Only after Tita had
tried for two whole days to push the baby out, did the mid-wife decide to have
her taken to the hospital. When Tita
reached, she had to be cut. It was not an episiotomy either, it was a cesarean.
As soon as this was done both baby and afterbirth came gushing out.
The Nurse told Tita that she was lucky, for had she reached
the hospital just half an hour later, they might not have been able to revive
her baby. Can you imagine!!
It wasn’t the thought that Tita had endured real labor pains
for two days and was cut, that made Mom shudder; instead, it was the fact that
Tita could have lost her baby, even after her ordeal. Mom was told as a child
that she would never have had children, and she was fearful since then that
this prophecy may come true. As a result, Mom purposed in her heart to do
everything in her power to ensure that her baby would survive birth.
Newby turned through the Hospital gate and had scarcely come
to a stop when Dad bailed from the front seat to open the back door for Mom. The
door from this 1976 Ford Cortina creaked as Greta stepped out, and it creaked
again as Mom slid over to the open door.
With a bright smile on his face, he said “Come yah Mi
baby-moda!” Mom didn’t like the name, and he knew it. It’s not clear why he
would have said it now, of all times.
“Nuh call mi suh!” Mom said as she tried pulling her
deformed self out of the car without his help.
He smiled again “chu man stap gwan suh!” as he gestured to
Mom to let him hold her hand, for support. But she was upset and refused his
help. Still very much in pain, and deformed by her huge belly, she managed to
pull herself out of the car without his or anybody’s help, for that matter.
She leaned on Greta’s shoulder afterward though, because
she was a little winded, but she soon straightened up and started walking
towards the big hand-painted sign that read “Registration”. She swayed from
side to side (like a duck) with each step she took which was a full
demonstration of pregnancy pride.
Wouldn’t you know that through the entire process of
registration the contractions came on and off; but as soon as the process was
complete they stopped altogether?
Had it not been that she had told the Nurse that she had
been bleeding, they probably would have told her to go back home from that very
hour. But it was not the nurse’s decision to say so, but the doctor’s and he
wanted to keep Mom overnight for monitoring. On hearing this Newby his wife and
Grandma, even Dad bid farewell with the promise to visit the next day.
After about 40 minutes or so, Mom was given a bed in the
public ward of the hospital. This meant that there were at least 20 other beds
in the section that she was in.
With the exception of two broken beds, all others were occupied
by a woman in some stage or just completed the delivery process. Some mothers
were sitting up with their babies; others were writhing in pain on their beds.
Still, there were others who were just sitting and waiting their turn to go into
labor. Mom would soon be one of those women who were sitting quietly observing while
the appointed time of delivery stayed.
During her wait, she familiarized herself with her
surroundings and made friends with her immediate neighbors. One was a woman
just 3 years older than her (24) and the other in her thirties.
During the conversation it was found out that the woman in her
thirties had had 9 other children before at home but had wanted to ensure that
this would be her last, so she had come into the hospital to deliver her 10th
child and to get a hysterectomy. The 24-year-old like Mom was having her first.
Mom could have chosen to get a room on the private side of
the hospital. But she hated being alone, especially since it was rumored that
the private ward was haunted. This made it an even more unfavorable option. It was frequently said that patients there
would ring the bell for the nurse and the old nurse’s duppy (ghost, spirit)
would show up and administer to them. The true nurse on duty would then show up
minutes later, and be told that a nurse had already come by. This always made
the nurse on duty say,
“Ah di duppy nurse visit yuh, cause mi ah di only nurse pan
duty tonite.”
Mom and the ladies spoke way into the night with neither of
them going into labor. But that was about to change. Although it was night, the few
functional ceiling fans were not keeping the room cool at all and Mom said that
she was going to the nearby kitchen to get the drink. The other ladies volunteered
to accompany her.
Mom complained that the heat was worse in the kitchen and
that the water from the pipe was not cold enough to cool her down. The 24-year-old took some ice from the freezer and filled Mom’s cup. Trying to explain the
ice she said to her on looking companions.
“Suddenly I just feel so hot and thirsty.”
And with that, she filled her cup with water from the sink and put the beverage to her head. She had not even finished the cup when she
felt a sudden sharp stabbing pain in her belly. This made her drop the cup and
the ice scattered on the floor.
Her heart raced within her chest as she thought, “Hmmm hmm
this is it.”
Mom buckled under the pain. One of her companions tried to
help her back to the ward while the other signaled for the nurse and midwife.
She gave birth to a baby boy (Jason Martin Gavin Alexander Black) weighing 8lbs 7 ounces, 2:12am on
Wednesday morning July 13, 1977.
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