Friday, November 7, 2008

Droubble: Baby Boom

Baby Boom

“There’s your baby, Miss Turner,” I say, indicating the ultrasound screen. She manages a smile, but worry makes her face far older than her twenty-some years.

“Doctor, I’ve been watching the news. Is it true what they’re saying about shortage?”

I sigh. “I won’t say it will be a relaxing couple of weeks. But it could be a lot worse. We have every active physician in the hospital assisting on births on a rotating schedule to keep in practice; we may not have a full-time obstetrician on every delivery, but we aren’t going to be turning anyone away.”

“It’s just, I can’t imagine what I would do if anything happened. This isn’t what I planned, but life feels so much more precious now. That night–”

“It’ll be fine,” I interrupt. “We’ll do everything to make sure your daughter is born safe and healthy.” I’m still not very comfortable talking about those days of terror, just seven months ago. The experts were so sure the comet would kill us all. We were spared, and I am grateful. But it is hard, in my line of work, not to dwell on that night when the world was about to end.

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