The Other Me by Rachael Aligbe
Episode 15
It was a very busy day on the fourth of July twenty five years ago. There were about nine pregnant women to be delivered of their babies that night into the next day. My shift had ended that night but because there were only three midwives, I had to stay back to assist them.
The other two midwives whose shift had ended that evening as well stayed back.
I cant deny knowing this woman here because of the incident of that day.
That evening, when I came to check on her, we got talking and she told me about her predicament and how she was extra careful to ensure that there was no miscarriage of any kind.
When I left her, the other midwives and I got talking. After telling them what she said and urging them that whoever would be with her while she was giving birth should be very deliberate to ensuring that nothing goes wrong.
She gave birth at about some minutes past two in the morning on the fifth of July. While I attended to her, another co-midwife attended to the baby. After which she brought the baby and put him in his bed beside his mother while she was fast asleep.
About fifteen minutes later, another woman gave birth to a set of male twins. While we congratulated her, she began to cry. We thought it was tears of joy. We were surprised when she said that she wanted only one and we should do something about the other.
While we were contemplating about what to do about the other, one of the midwives hastily came in shivering. We asked what was wrong. She said that she went to check on the woman and her baby. The woman was okay but she noticed that the woman’s baby wasn’t breathing anymore. We asked which woman and she said that it was Mrs. George.
For about thirty seconds, we were in deep thoughts. Then one of my co-midwives suggested that we would have to swap the dead baby with the other twin to save her marriage.
That was why the other midwives who were aware of the incident left in less than two years.