I race towards her and help her back into her room, sitting her on the edge of the bed. She talks me through the pains in her lower stomach, which are now more intense and coming several minutes apart.
‘Do you think you could call Zac?’ she asks, her features pulled tight. ‘He seems to know about this.’
‘I’m sure he’ll just say to call an ambulance,’ I reply breathlessly.
‘But it could still be the false labour pains. My water hasn’t broken, and isn’t it still too early? The doctor said just last week that everything looked on track.’
‘I’ll try him quickly first,’ I decide, running back into the guest room to grab my phone.
Zac picks up after four rings, sounding groggy and a little panicked. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I think Christina might be in labour. But we’re not sure.’
His voice springs to life. ‘Tell me what’s happening.’
I dart back into Christina’s room, finding her hunched over. With Zac on speaker, I hurriedly catch him up on her symptoms, and he instructs me to call an ambulance right away.
Christina points at her phone on the bedside table. ‘Use that one. I’d feel better if you kept him on the other line.’
I use Christina’s phone to call an ambulance, then Pete in Melbourne, before slipping into the hallway to give her and her husband some privacy.
Zac’s voice in my ear tries to soothe and distract me with an anecdote about the time he was transporting a woman in labour to hospital, and she began reciting romantic sonnets to keep herself calm. He said he spent the entire drive trying not to swoon.
A short scream sounds from Christina’s room, and my heart nearly falls out of my chest as I dash back in. She’s lying on the bed with a puddle of water seeping through the sheets, her brow clenched.
‘Zac,’ I choke into the phone. ‘Her water just broke.’
‘God, I feel like I really need to go to the toilet,’ Christina bites out.
‘She needs to go to the toilet!’
‘OK, the baby might be coming sooner than expected,’ Zac says calmly.
‘Oh my god! Have you ever delivered a baby?’ I gasp at him.
‘I have never delivered a baby, but I have helped many mothers deliver their babies. And that’s what you’re going to do right now. How’s Mum doing?’
I glance at Christina, devastated that her husband’s going to miss this. Bloody Sydney mortgages and the constant pressure to work yourself into the ground at any cost!
I rest my hand on her forearm, and she gazes up at me with a slightly panicked smile.
‘She’s OK,’ I tell Zac.
‘Good. Now, the first thing you should do is be really calm in front of Christina, OK? Tell her she’s doing great.’
I smile at her, tears springing to my eyes. ‘You’re doing great.’
Zac begins the next instruction, which is to make sure that Christina’s well away from the edges of the bed.
While I help her shift up the mattress, she blinks up at me, her newsreader voice turning stern. ‘Josie, I want you to promise me right now that you’re going to get that ultrasound you need, so we can all put this behind us.’
My jaw hangs. ‘You’re having a baby! Don’t worry about that now!’
She levels a look at me. ‘If I can do this, then you can do that. Deal?’
I press my lips together to stave off the tears burning in my eyes. ‘Deal.’
‘OK, I love Christina already,’ Zac says in my ear. ‘Now, let’s help her meet her baby.’
