Chapter 16 - The baby
For eleven days after my escape, the baby remained inside me.
That sentence sounds strange unless you understand how terrified I was of delivering early.
Hospital staff monitored us.
Fluids.
Nutrition.
Tube regimen corrected.
Medication adjusted.
The nonprescribed sedating substance cleared.
My alertness improved.
Vomiting remained because the actual pregnancy condition had never disappeared.
That almost comforted me.
Not everything in my body belonged to Michael and Patricia.
Some suffering was simply mine.
At thirty-one weeks, I developed concerning blood-pressure changes unrelated to the tube issue.
Doctors monitored.
At thirty-five weeks and six days, my daughter Mae was born after my condition worsened enough that delivery became the safer option.
Not emergency movie birth.
Medical decision.
Labor induction.
Erin with me.
My mother, Diane, arrived the next morning.
Michael was not present.
A temporary protection order restricted contact.
Mae weighed five pounds, eight ounces.
She spent four days in special-care nursery mainly for feeding and monitoring.
No catastrophic injury.
No evidence that the substances administered to me caused a specific permanent problem for her.
I needed that stated clearly.
People wanted to call her:
Miracle baby poisoned in womb.
No.
She was early.
Small.
Healthy enough.
May you like
The medical team would not attribute every complication to abuse.
Accuracy protected her too.
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