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found language
the midwife handed her the cage
saying ‘when your time comes set this pigeon free
i’ll catch the next ferry when your bird reaches me’
we were milking and the pains started
my husband said ‘Don’t think you’re going anywhere
till we finish the herd'
those Maori women they’re not like us
they go up the back into the whare
and have their babies on their own with nothing
then the baby came she turned her face to the wall
it was her way of giving it up
you see
i felt for her
she came round home to visit me later
we never mentioned it but she gave me five beakers
splashed over with hand painted poppies
and a tall glass pitcher
a Maori girl never saw her again i still have them
going flat tack washing my hands
suddenly thought
‘you never tied off the cord’
i still dream about it
do you know that baby might’ve bled to death
one night i threw out the afterbirth
and i went down and said to the girl
‘look i’m so sorry' and she said
‘oh no we don’t believe in those old ways’
in those days it was a sterile procedure
and i dropped the bowls setting up
well i couldn’t face Sister tearing strips off
so i just popped them back on the trolley
God knows i’d mopped that floor enough to eat lunch off
those Sisters were old school
dedicated their lives to it
you wouldn’t get them like that now
she saved the baby’s life
stayed with it night and morning
and never took her days off till it could suck by itself
we thought she was an old witch
that was the year we got a paediatrician
Catholic
his wife demanded to lie on her side for deliveries
and sat up straight after and fed the baby in theatre
those doctors
we
thought they were God Almighty
yes he slapped her
i won’t say where
‘It’s not hurting' he shouted ‘Settle down’
and she’d paid for a specialist
baby born at home both well
we went round to see them that same night
and superwoman answered the door herself
‘Clark’s gone for his shout’ she said
it all went perfectly
‘the midwife left we open the bottle of Moët
and the baby goes blue
Joseph ran for Matiu
psyche nurse neighbours over the road
knew exactly what to do
clear the airway let the mucus flow’
‘guess i’m her fairy godfather’ he said
‘Tihe mauri ora’
it was in the Western Leader last week
home birth baby born on the marae
‘doesn’t seem right to me’
she kept saying ‘i have to get up’
‘i have to get up and walk’
Sister was too busy to come
just snapped ‘Make Her Lie Down’
i tried in the end she knelt on the bed
well in labour
squatted on the beach we support her
caught the baby when it came
later she carries him into the water
and both have a warm salt wash
‘those women talk about everything
in the dayroom
it’s not suitable for the young nurses i won’t send them down there
i’ll be glad when this group of mothers goes home’
who is this woman in the training film
showing us how to die of toxaemia
is she aware of the camera?
i dedicate this poem to her
the midwife hands us the cage
saying ‘when your time comes set the bird free
i’ll get on the next ferry when it reaches me’
© Janet Charman
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