“Second stage?” Hannah repeated, looking confused.
Now, this was something she could answer without looking it up. Relieved to be on familiar ground, her voice came out stronger this time. “Once the baby’s head is down further in the birth canal.”
She checked another article on forceps delivery. “It says here they’d pretty much stopped doing high forceps deliveries by the 50s. That’s when the baby is still up quite high in the mother’s pelvis. The doctors often used them when the baby was crowning.”
“So, when it’s stuck or the mother can’t push any more?”
“You’d think that would be logical, right? But they often used them just-in-case. Even when there was nothing wrong.”
“Crazy.”
The two writers bent back over their scripts, mumbling to each other about changing dialogue, and made notes. The Head of Props and Laney the director, who’d been silently listening, made notes as well.
Jess searched her mind for any midwifery history she could remember from her university days. Thankfully, one useful fact came into focus. “They’d do an episiotomy and then use them,” she said. “Do you know what an episiotomy is?”
“Is that where they cut them?” the redhead pulled a face, disgusted.
“I know,” Jess replied. “It’s not the most fun to think about, but natural birth wasn’t really considered safe.”
“Yeah, I remember reading that. They made it so medical.”
A quote she’d read while studying for an assignment popped into her head, and she said a silent thank you prayer to her younger self for at least studying hard while she’d partied. “One pair of doctors in the 50s called natural birth a monstrosity.”
Hannah curled her lip. “I mean, it’s not fun. I opted for no drugs for my baby. No way I’d do that again. Lilia was there. She knows what I’m talking about.”
So the red-haired writer was Lilia. Jess smiled, pleased she’d remembered some of their names.
“It totally put me off having kids,” Lilia agreed.
“Me too,” added Laney. “Being a midwife, that must put you off having kids, surely?”
“Actually, a lot of women feel powerful after giving birth,” Jess said. “They’ve spent nine months growing this amazing baby in their bodies. That’s not a small deal.”
“Powerful?” Lilia exchanged a sceptical glance with the other young women at the table.
“Seriously,” Jess laughed. “They do.”
“Can’t say that was my experience. I guess we’ll have to trust you with that one,” Hannah said, flipping the pages of the script and pointing to another scene. “One last thing, I wasn’t sureabout the bed rest here? Wasn’t there a long period where the mums weren’t meant to move?”
“I’m pretty sure they’d stopped that by the 50s? Can I get back to you on that one?” Jess asked. She remembered something about bedrest, but the dates weren’t clear in her head.
“Yeah, don’t feel too pressured. We’re not shooting that scene until after lunch. We’ll need a bit of time for rewrites if we need to make changes, that’s all. Also, what was the deal with twilight sleep? Was that always used or…will it fit for the scene?”
“I’ll get onto it now,” Jess said, drawing an asterisk on her script next to the scene and scribblingtwilightin the margin. “Is that everything?”
Hannah and Lilia looked at each other. “Yip,” they said in unison.
“I think they’ll want you on set soon,” Lilia added. “To make sure the actors are getting the labour right. Is that the plan?”
“Yes, shooting starts at—” Laney flicked through the folder in front of her. “We’re running a bit late this morning, but eight-thirty is what it says on the schedule.”
“Okay, no problem. I’ll be there.” Jess glanced at her phone for the time. That gave her half an hour for research. She hoped it’d be enough.
FINDING A QUIET SPOT TO SIT,Jess scrolled through research articles on her phone. The information about twilight sleep was easy to find. It was a combination of drugs that was used from around 1915 to stop the pain of childbirth, but it also wiped the mother’s memory of birth. In the 50s, Jess discovered, women were often given powerful drugs as soon as they arrived at the labour ward, but the aim was to keep the mother conscious throughout birth, especially if it was an uncomplicated delivery.One down, one to go. Having found the first answer quickly, Jess smiled to herself.
Twenty minutes later, though, she still hadn’t found any solid information about bed rest. A few medical bloggers said encouraging women into long stretches of bedrest had stopped by then, but Jess wanted to make sure the facts were 100% right. Anyone could blog about medical history. It didn’t mean they knew what they were talking about.
Sighing, she let her phone fall into her lap and leant her head back against the wall. They’d be needing her soon on set. Time to call for backup. She dialled her manager’s number. It went straight to voicemail. Jess crossed her fingers Janice would pick up—she had said she’d help anytime—but no luck there either.
