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‘I would rather get her up there fast.’ Without further conversation, Luca left the room and Tia watched them, totally unaware that Polly was talking to her.
‘Tia?’ Polly finished checking her friend’s pulse and blood pressure and frowned down at her. ‘I asked if you were in any pain.’
Pain?
‘No.’ And anyway she didn’t care about pain. She just wanted her daughter to be OK.
By the time Luca reappeared Tia had been moved to the ward and settled in a bed.
After a conversation with Sharon, who was now back on duty, she’d persuaded the staff to remove her drip and her catheter.
‘I want to be mobile as soon as possible,’ she said stubbornly.
Dan popped up to see her and checked on the wound and her uterus and asked about her back.
‘It aches a bit,’ Tia admitted, ‘but I know that’s perfectly normal so you don’t need to reassure me.’
Dan grinned. ‘Having a well-informed patient is a mixed blessing. How’s Lily?’
Tia tried to hide her anxiety but failed dismally. ‘I don’t know. Luca’s been up there for ages…’
At that moment Luca walked quietly into the room, obviously expecting her to be asleep.
‘Is she all right?’ Tia winced as she struggled to sit upright and Luca frowned.
‘You are in pain?’
‘No,’ Tia lied. ‘How is Lily? What have they done? Is she ventilated?’
Luca sat down next to the bed and dealt with the questions one at a time. ‘Overall, she’s doing all right,’ he said carefully, and Tia’s breathing quickened.
‘But she’s got plenty wrong with her, hasn’t she? I can tell that you’re hiding something from me.’ Her eyes filled. ‘I want you to tell me the truth, Lu
ca.’
‘I’m not hiding anything.’ He took her hand and gave her a tired smile. ‘She’s just very small and 34 weeks is a bit borderline, as you know. Some 34-weekers are perfectly capable of managing on their own without help and they do fine. Others need help.’
‘How much help? Is she being ventilated?’
Tia knew from her own experience as a midwife that plenty of babies born prematurely needed ventilating to assist their breathing. Was this what had happened to little Lily?
Luca took a deep breath. ‘You know she was grunting and you know as well as I do that that can be a sign of respiratory distress. She’s also got a degree of intercostal recession and mild cyanosis. They’re giving her CPAP.’
Tia stared at him, aware that with CPAP—continuous positive airways pressure—the baby was able to breathe independently but a continuous distending pressure was exerted on the airway to prevent the tiny air sacs in the lungs collapsing at the end of each respiration.
‘Are they measuring her oxygen saturation?’
Luca nodded. ‘It’s variable, but they assure me that we can expect that with a 34-weeker. They’re giving her oxygen and they’ve passed a nasogastric tube so that they can feed her. Later on, if you have the energy, you could try and express some milk for her and they can put that down the tube. We don’t want to waste all those precious antibodies and we need to start stimulating your milk supply if she isn’t going to feed immediately.’
Tia nodded immediately. ‘Shall I do that now?’
‘No.’ He gave a gentle smile and gently squeezed her hand. ‘You need some rest. How are you feeling? I want an honest answer.’
‘I’m fine. I just want to get out of bed and go and see her.’ Tia looked longingly at the wheelchair. ‘Will you take me?’
‘Now?’ Luca glanced at Dan who shrugged.
‘I don’t see why not. She’s not going to get any rest while she’s worrying like this. Take her up there if she feels up to it.’
