Midwives On-Call. Alison Roberts

tell him that you forgot to let him know?’ Isla said, and then thought for a moment. ‘It is a bit awkward,’ she admitted as she pondered the issue while doing her level best to think this through as she would for any patient who was related to one of the staff here. She had to somehow forget that the staff member happened to be Alessi who, after last night, she was doing her level best to avoid.

      Ignore that fact, she told herself.

      ‘I’ll come over to Antenatal now and speak with Allegra,’ Isla offered. ‘And I’ll also deal with Alessi. Thank you for letting me know, Sophia.’

      Isla made her way down to the antenatal clinic and Sophia told her where Allegra was. Isla knocked on the door and went in and smiled when she saw Allegra. She was the female version of Alessi with black eyes and black hair and, while strapped to the CTG monitor, she was also doing her level best to keep a wriggling little boy of around three years old amused.

      ‘Hi, Allegra,’ Isla greeted her. ‘I’m Isla, the head of midwifery.’

      ‘Hello, Isla.’ Allegra smiled. ‘Is this about Alessi? I realised as soon as I said it that the midwife was feeling a bit awkward when I asked her to pretend she’d forgotten I was here. I’m so sorry about that. I should have discussed this with Alessi myself, instead of landing my problems on Sophia.’

      ‘It’s fine,’ Isla said, and looked over at the little boy. ‘You’ve got your hands full, I see.’

      ‘Very,’ Allegra agreed. ‘Sophia gave him a colouring book and some pencils but he’s just climbing all over me at the moment. I think Niko’s starting to fathom that he’s not going to have me all to himself for much longer.’

      ‘Probably,’ Isla said, and sat down in a chair near Allegra. ‘They’re very intuitive and they often sense that change is about to come. Hey, Niko, do you want to come and sit with me?’ Isla suggested to the little black-eyed boy who had the same curls as his uncle. ‘Look what I’ve got …’

      Niko looked at Isla, who had taken out her pen torch and was flicking it on and off. It worked as a diversion tactic almost every time with three-year-olds and thankfully it worked today. Niko climbed down from his mum’s lap and made his way over to Isla. She noted that he had a slightly abnormal gait as he walked over and climbed up onto her lap.

      ‘Look,’ Isla said, flicking the pen torch on and off and then giving it to Niko, who tried to do the same. Only he soon found out that it wasn’t as easy as Isla had made it look and he would hopefully take several moments to work it out and give Allegra a small break while they chatted and Allegra explained her reasons for not wanting Alessi there.

      ‘I had a very difficult labour with Niko,’ Allegra said. ‘We were living in Sydney at the time. He was a breech birth and I ended up having an emergency Caesarean section after a very long labour.’ Allegra paused for a moment before continuing—clearly the memory of it still distressed her. ‘Niko wasn’t breathing when he was born and had to be resuscitated. As a consequence he was without oxygen and has now got mild cerebral palsy.’

      ‘That must have been a very scary time for you,’ Isla offered.

      ‘It was,’ Allegra agreed. ‘I wasn’t at all well after the birth, either. The thing is, there were a couple of mistakes made and possibly what happened could have been prevented. I chose not to pursue it. I just wanted to put it all behind me. Alessi, though, was pretty devastated as well as furious. I know he thinks if he’d been there, or at least around, then I’d have been taken to Theatre more quickly and Niko’s birth injury could have been avoided. My parents said pretty much the same to him, too.’

      Isla said nothing but her heart went out to them both.

      ‘I don’t want Alessi to be involved in this birth, not because I don’t think he’s brilliant, it’s more that if something does go wrong this time around then I don’t want him blaming himself for it.’

      ‘I completely understand that you’d feel that way.’ Isla nodded but because she’d had a brief look at Allegra’s notes before she’d come in, she knew that there was more. ‘And?’

      ‘And?’ Allegra smiled at Isla’s question.

      ‘Is there another reason that you don’t want Alessi’s input?’

      ‘There is.’ Allegra rolled her eyes in the very same way that her brother did. ‘I want to try and have a natural birth this time. Given what happened in my previous labour, Alessi is against the idea of trial of labour and thinks I should have a planned Caesarean section.’

      ‘So, not only do you have to convince your obstetrician, you have to convince your brother, as well?’

      ‘Ah, not just those two,’ Allegra sighed. ‘I’ve had to convince my husband and also my mother.’ She gave a tired shake of the head. ‘Usually I’m the golden one and Alessi’s the black sheep but in this she thinks I should listen to him, because he’s a doctor.’

      Isla fought her own curiosity about that statement—while she wanted to know more about Alessi, this wasn’t the place, and she could see Allegra was close to tears. ‘What happened with Niko has brought up a lot of stuff for my parents. Maybe I should just have a planned Caesarean. I really am sorry for trying to involve your staff in this.’

      ‘It’s our job to be involved,’ Isla said, and she truly did her best to pretend this wasn’t Alessi’s twin pouring her heart out to her. Which meant, if this hadn’t been Alessi’s twin then Isla knew exactly what she would do in this case. ‘It’s your pregnancy and your labour. You shouldn’t go through an operation just to please your family. I can explain all that to him.’

      Allegra looked dubious. ‘I don’t know how well he’d take it.’

      ‘I would imagine that when I explain what’s going on to Alessi, he’s going to feel bad for causing you so much stress …’

      ‘I know that he shall,’ Allegra agreed. ‘We’re very close. The thing is Alessi has always looked out for me at school and things …’ She looked at Isla. ‘I remember you from school.’

      Isla felt a little guilty that she didn’t remember Allegra clearly.

      ‘I got picked on a lot at school,’ Allegra said. ‘Well, we both did.’

      ‘Really?’ Isla couldn’t imagine for a moment Alessi being picked on by anyone, he was so confident and assured, but then Allegra continued speaking.

      ‘We were scholarship kids,’ she explained. ‘Which meant from the day that we started we didn’t belong. At every opportunity it would be rammed down our throats that we couldn’t afford to go skiing or that we didn’t have the right uniform. It was very cruel. Alessi looked out for me then and is just trying to do the same now. The thing is …’ Allegra hesitated and Isla stepped in.

      ‘You don’t need him to any more?’

      ‘No, I don’t.’ Allegra sighed. ‘I’m not going to take any risks with this baby but I really do want to try and have a natural delivery.’ She thought for a long moment. ‘It would be great if you could speak to him for me. I really have tried and I seem to get nowhere.’

      Isla nodded. ‘You’re not the first patient to have this sort of problem. I’ve dealt with this on several occasions. No doubt I’ll be the same if my sister ever gets pregnant. It’s very hard to step back when you love someone, though Alessi needs to in this.’

      ‘Thanks, Isla.’

      Niko had actually fallen asleep while they’d been talking. Isla carried him over to one of the empty reclining chairs next to Allegra and laid him down, then went and looked at the CTG monitor. ‘Everything looks very good,’ Isla said. ‘Right, I’m going to have a word with that brother of yours and don’t worry. If you have any concerns, any at all, ring through to MMU and ask to be put through to me.’

      ‘Thanks so much.’

      As