Love's End Leads to New Beginnings

My husband, an obstetrician, had insisted I endure a natural birth, even though I carried a massive four-kilogram baby. His reasoning was grounded not in compassion or medical necessity, but rather in his irritation, believing that I was burdening the kind, accommodating nurse.

“Millie is not your servant,” he had scolded, eyes sharp with disapproval. “Why do you keep ordering her to bring you tea and water? Pregnancy is no excuse for acting unreasonable!”

Enduring wave after wave of relentless contractions, I cried out until my voice was raw, my hand gripping the bed’s guardrail so tightly that it finally gave way under my grip.

The baby’s head was wedged in my pelvis, immovable. Exhausted, desperate, I looked to my husband, the man I had trusted and shared a life with, who held medical knowledge and skill that could save us both. “This is your child too,” I pleaded, each word a plea through my ragged breaths. “Give me a C-section. If we wait any longer, we may both die.”

But he only sneered, folding his arms dismissively. “Stop trying to get out of it! As a doctor, I have the right to refuse surgery. As your husband, I refuse to sign for it. If you have enough energy to scream like this, you could have given birth already.”

With a sharp gesture, he directed the nurse to silence me, stuffing a rag into my mouth.

My cries faded, becoming a shadow of agony in the sterile room, even as echoes of laughter and murmurings of passion seeped from the nearby bathroom. The life I had been nurturing for nine months now felt like a weapon, tearing at my insides, flooding me with pain.

After a night spent together, he held Millie close in the morning, his tone warm and sympathetic.

“Gia must learn her lesson. Millie, go find another doctor to handle the delivery. Then we’ll go home together.”

Yet there I lay, motionless, cold, my breathing stilled as I slipped into a final rest.

——

“She’s so loud! Does anyone not feel pain during childbirth?” he sneered. “She’s probably exhausting herself by making things difficult for everyone instead of just focusing.”

Peter buttoned his coat and flipped up collar to hide a telltale mark on his neck.

“Doctor, a baby weighing over three kilograms meets criteria for surgery. Gia’s baby is already a giant at over four kilograms. What if complications arise?”

The assistant swallowed nervously, trying to find the right words. “Should we—”

“Are you the expert now?” Peter’s eyes flashed. “I’ve delivered hundreds of babies without making a single wrong call.”

The sound of the guardrail snapping interrupted his words. The assistant’s face paled as he glanced toward the delivery room, where my broken cries still filled the air. “She’s been laboring for over a day. If this goes on, the baby could be starved of oxygen…”

“It’s already been that long?” Peter muttered, looking briefly at the hallway banner proclaiming, “First, Do No Harm.”

A fleeting trace of concern crossed his face.

But as he reached for the delivery room door, Millie intercepted him with a cup of warm sweet tea.

“Doctor Peter, Gia has been crying for so long. She must be thirsty. Should I go in with you to give her some tea?”

Peter’s expression darkened. “Did she order you to do that again? And you still serve her? What makes her think she deserves it?”

Millie’s lips quivered, her eyes brimming with hurt. “No, I’m just happy to help her.”

“Don’t make excuses for her,” he muttered, his face hardening. “Let her endure it for a few more hours.”

Then, without a backward glance, he strode down the hallway, Millie trailing close behind, her steps quick to match his.

The last strands of hope that had kept me fighting dissolved, leaving me in a haze of agony. In the emptiness, I tore at my own fingers, breaking each one, my hands grotesquely twisted and mangled. Blood streamed from my lower body, staining the cold bed in a crimson river, pooling beneath my shattered pelvis and battered uterus.

But now, at least, the pain was gone. The final scream I had managed moments ago had been my last, fading to nothing as my soul slipped free, gazing at the shell of the woman on the bed—a woman who looked more like a doll shattered beyond repair.

As I watched, a laugh of bitter sorrow rose from my spirit. Would Peter ever feel a flicker of regret or grief?

Perhaps he might, I thought… but no.

Peter stood by Millie, his fingers delicately tending to the blister on her hand, carefully applying ointment and wrapping her injured skin. “Millie, Gia must know how gentle you are, that you would injure yourself for her and still let her order you around.”

Millie offered a soft, almost embarrassed smile. “It’s no trouble, Doctor Peter.”

Peter sighed. “A giant baby? She makes things up to control me! Even her pregnancy is just a ploy.”

My spirit convulsed, the revelation of his words more painful than the birth I had endured. I had sacrificed everything, bearing a child against my own values and resigning my career to care for our child, coaxed into it by my mother-in-law’s insistence.

But it was Peter’s choice to force me to endure the daily burden of greasy meals, growing our child to a size that had now rendered me helpless. When I had begged for water to soothe my cracked lips, Millie had burned herself in her kindness. And for this, Peter had twisted the situation, stripping me of my right to a cesarean section and sentencing me to natural birth instead.

When the neighboring doctor had walked by and offered to help, Peter’s fury had grown. “Gia, I told you to stop! As a doctor, I refuse to operate. As a husband, I refuse to sign. If you had energy to scream, you’d be done by now!”

Blocking my path to the operating room, he tore up the consent form. His voice rang out for everyone nearby. “No wasting resources! No surgery! No pain relief! Only natural birth!”

The blood now poured from my body in an unstoppable flow, like a river spreading through the delivery room, painting the floor in my last testament. My hand instinctively touched my swollen belly in a final farewell and I closed my eyes as the darkness claimed me.