anonymously (or not) ask me any question you’d like to know about me
I’m back now (finally)
So, please, ask me something you’d like to know about me
Also a reminder that my requests are OPEN and you can request oneshots, drabbles, headcannons… I’m going to update the fandoms I’m writing for tonight or tomorrow (hopefully)
Holy crap guys, it’s been a long time. I took some time off from the gym and have just been enjoying life and eating dinners out and having a bagel every day. Literally every single day.
My boyfriend and I moved out of our old apartment to a way better apartment in a way better neighborhood in the same city. Believe it or not, it’s saving me money!
We just moved last weekend so I’m still unpacking and organizing (and have yet to grocery shop), but I found some time to do a bit of cardio and a general upper body day today. It felt great!
Summary:a pregnant midwife goes to assist a client in labour, goes into labour herself, and tries desperately to hide her own labour until she can leave.
Tags:birth denial, slight clothing birth, third person POV
Word Count:5431
As one of the most successful midwives in her city, Dana’s schedule was always booked and she always had a lot of pregnancies to look after. One of the pregnancies she looked after most closely was her own, as she was almost due with her third, and she’d hoped to take on clients whose due dates were not close to hers. Unfortunately, her last client was very overdue and did not want to go in for an induction, leaving Dana no time to go on her maternity leave.
Today Dana finally received the long awaited call and she put her phone down excitedly, grinning at her amused husband.
“I’m assuming Emily is in–”
“Emily is in labour!!” Dana cut him off before he could finish his sentence, bouncing in excitement as best as she could with her heavy bump weighing her down. “No more worrying, we can wait for this little one stress-free!”
She gathered her bag of supplies, always neatly packed up and stored under the coat rack, and her husband followed her to the door.
“Make sure you take care of yourself too,” he insisted, one of his hands raising up to caress the bump. “If something happens, get Emily to another midwife or a hospital and then call me.”
Dana rolled her eyes affectionately, leaning up to kiss him goodbye and shivering pleasantly at the feeling of his abdomen pressed up against her rounded belly.
“I promise we’ll be okay, I’ll text you updates!”
The drive to Emily’s house seemed to take forever, but Dana enjoyed the comforts of her tricked-out midwife van while she drove. After multiple instances of clients unexpectedly delivering inside her car, she added stain resistant fabric to the seats and soundproofed the vehicle in case another incident occurred– which had the added bonus of drowning out most of the traffic.
As soon as she pulled into the driveway, Emily’s husband was running through the front door towards the van. He was almost vibrating as he stood outside the driver’s side door, staring at Dana through the window with a nervous expression.
“Hi, how’s Emily doing? Any big changes?”
He shook his head as he led Dana into the house, taking her bag of supplies in order to hurry her along.
“Nothing major to report, the contractions are coming steadily at about five minutes apart and I’m trying my best to keep her relaxed and comfortable.”
Dana had to hide her smile at his pre-parental panic, and he rushed away at the sound of a pained groan from the other room. She followed at a more calm pace, and found him rubbing Emily’s back and whispering softly into her ear. Dana watched them sympathetically, waiting out the contraction before attempting to speak up.
“Hey Emily, I’m glad to see things are finally progressing. How are you feeling?”
The look on Emily’s face was pure relief as she saw her midwife in the room. Using her husband as support, she stood up from the couch and walked towards Dana with both hands cradling her overdue belly.
“I’m feeling tired but excited to not be pregnant anymore,” she joked wryly. “Contractions are pretty bad but I’ve been able to get through them so far. Glad you’re here to help out.”
Dana got into action, opening up her equipment and explaining each step to the couple. Between contractions, she took a moment to examine Emily and check the baby’s position as well as her dilation.
“You’re certainly doing well, baby’s head is engaged and you’re at six centimetres dilated. Do you want me to start filling up the tub for you, or would you rather labour out here for the time being?”
“Let’s do the tub, I heard that it might speed up labour if I do certain positions in there,” Emily said, starting to walk towards the stairs. Mid-stride, she stopped in her tracks and reached out for her husband to lean against him. “Fuuuck, there’s another contraction. Oooohhh…”
Emily swayed her hips in a figure eight as she moaned under her breath, her husband holding her up with his hands on her lower back. Wanting to give them privacy, Dana headed up the stairs to begin filling the bath up for her client. As she reached down for the tap, she could feel her back twinge and she pressed a hand against the aching spot. The pain radiated for a couple of seconds before slowly fading again, and Dana returned to her preparations. This late into her pregnancy she had been feeling Braxton-Hicks as well as the general aches of having such a swollen belly, but it was hard to discern what the source of this pain was.
“Is the tub ready? The bump is so heavy and my back is killing me!” Emily waddled into the room, stripping off her loose clothing as she lowered herself into the water. Her husband settled himself by the side of the tub, rubbing her back as she squirmed to find a comfortable position, allowing Dana to rest and sit on the toilet lid as she observed the labour.
Over the next hour, Emily’s labouring grew more intense as she switched positions to speed up the delivery. Dana’s periodic check-ins confirmed that everything was going well, so she sat back and allowed Emily to do whatever felt most comfortable. During this observation Dana also felt a number of strong Braxton-Hicks contractions, choosing to dismiss them as she looked after her client.
“My fingers are getting wrinkly, I want to dry off,” Emily cried out as she abruptly stood up from the tub, her husband catching her before she could wobble. “Help me into the bedroom!”
As Emily slowly moved back towards the bedroom, Dana followed and observed her movements and her lowered stance. The baby seemed to be much lower in Emily’s pelvis judging by her widened legs as she walked, and her turbulent behaviour made Dana think that she might be entering the transition stage, getting closer to delivery.
“Any changes in how you’re feeling, or still just the steady contractions?”
Emily grimaced, massaging her bump as she leaned back against the bed. Before she could respond, another contraction slammed into her and she groaned, reaching out shakily to squeeze her husband’s arm.
“It… ohhhh… it feels different, they’re worse now and it feels a lot tighter.”
Dana reached out, placing her hands firmly against Emily’s bump and applying even pressure as she rubbed circles around the swell. Her belly felt a lot firmer and the contractions had her muscles rock-hard under Dana’s palms.
“Feels to me like your water might have broken while you were in the tub. When you feel ready, I can check your dilation again to see how far your labour has progressed.”
“Wait, not yet, not–” Emily’s words were cut off as she focused all her attention on breathing through her next contraction. Dana leaned back again, rubbing one hand against Emily’s thigh to reassure her. As the pain subsided, she looked back up at her midwife and nodded. “Alright, check now before another contraction hits.”
As Dana carefully examined Emily’s cervix, she felt a similar tightening in her own stomach and had to steel herself from exclaiming out loud. Of course she’d felt Braxton-Hicks for a couple of weeks, but after two children she was fairly sure that she could recognize a contraction. It was stronger than she would have hoped for her first real contraction, but of course her third child would come much more quickly than her two older ones. Dana kept moving with muscle memory, her mind concentrating on keeping her expression calm. As the pain began to fade, she took note of Emily’s level of dilation and gingerly pulled her fingers out.
“Alright Emily, it feels like you’re in the transition stage, which means you’re dilating quickly and you’ll probably hit ten centimetres pretty soon,” she said with a reassuring smile.
Emily didn’t seem all that reassured, reaching a frantic hand out to grab her husband’s arm.
“No, it’s going way too quickly. I can’t do this yet!”
She attempted to stand up, wobbling as she grasped the bed for support. Rather than stop her, Dana encouraged the labouring woman to begin walking around the room with her husband.
“Remember how you were trying to speed labour up earlier? It worked, and you’re hopefully going to have your baby in your arms within an hour or two.”
As Emily’s husband reassured her, Dana left the couple to their quiet moment in order to clean up the bathroom and get all her equipment in order. She knelt down to mop up the spilt water around the tub, draining it to refill with fresh and warm water. A contraction suddenly hit her when she stretched to reach the tap, more intense than the previous one, and she had to stop for a moment to pant and catch her breath. In her kneeling position she rocked from side to side to lessen the pressure on her hips. Through the haze of pain, she could hear Emily crying out mid-contraction from the other room and couldn’t help but chuckle at the unfortunate coincidence.
“Hey, just stay in there for a little longer, alright sweetheart?” She whispered, cupping the underside of her bump.
Once the tub had been filled, she shut off the faucet and attempted to get out of her kneeling position, hampered by the weight of her heavy womb pressed atop her thighs. Dana felt ungainly as she reached the sink, but a glance in the mirror had her admiring the roundness of her belly. The various tools were disorganised on the bathroom counter, and she began to sterilise them one-by-one and place them on a tray so she could easily bring them to Emily. The sound of more moaning from the bedroom drifted through the door, and Dana peeked her head out at the couple, Emily now on all fours upon the bed.
“How are they coming along, any increased pressure or urge to push?”
Emily groaned angrily, and her husband made eye contact with Dana to surreptitiously shake his head in response. She nodded and left them to their privacy to continue her preparations in the bathroom, listening to Emily’s cries taper off and the sounds of quiet conversation between the couple.
Dana was wiping some water off of the blood pressure cuff when another contraction hit her, making her double over against the sink, her knees nearly buckling with the force of it. As her muscles tightened, she could feel the pressure intensifying between her hips, tempting her to switch positions to relieve the ache. Shaking her head, she pressed her face against the cool ceramic to focus herself. Once it abated, she gathered her equipment and carried it into the bedroom, setting it on the bedside table next to Emily.
“How are you doing? Is there anything you want me to set up before pushing starts?”
Emily was catching her breath in between contractions and looked up at her with a wan smile.
“Just some way to make it stop hurting. And something that will make me stop wanting to throw up,” she mumbled, leaning against her husband for support.
“I can’t make it stop hurting, but we can keep moving around and trying different positions to see what feels best during this stage.”
The trio moved around the room, Dana explaining different positions and techniques to alleviate pain as Emily tried them out. As another contraction hit, she batted her husband’s hands away angrily, hunched over on an exercise ball. Emily swayed her hips from side to side with her hands on her knees, beginning to vocalize deeply as the exercise ball eased her movements. Dana checked the contraction timer to ensure that things were moving steadily, watching as the wave of pain tapered off and Emily took a deep breath.
“Alright, it looks like we’re getting close to the finish line, I’m going to grab you some ice chips for the nausea and then we can decide whether you want to start off in the tub or in here.”
As Emily once again situated herself within her husband’s grasp, Dana headed to the kitchen to get some more ice chips as well as some bottles of water. Each step down the stairs felt like it was spreading her pelvis wider, allowing her baby’s head to descend lower and lower within her birth canal. Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and while she opened the fridge with one hand, she swiped open the notification on her phone with the other.
LOVER:How’s the birth going? Are you and baby doing alright? Let me know when you’re finishing up there.
Dana began to type out a message to her husband about the contractions, but stopped herself mid sentence as she finished grabbing the supplies. If she told him about her contractions he would insist on her leaving immediately to go to the birth centre, and he’d probably show up to take her there if Dana didn’t leave on her own. There was absolutely no way she was going to leave Emily this late into her labour. She’d been progressing remarkably quickly, especially for a first baby, and there was likely ample time for Dana to finish up the delivery and then get herself taken care of. She shot off a quick text telling him that everything was going well and that she was perfectly fine–not a lie–and headed back to the stairs.
Going up was even harder than going down had been, and it felt like a bowling ball had lodged itself in her pelvis, greatly restricting her range of movement. Finally making it up to the bedroom, Dana set the water bottles on the dresser and handed the ice chips to Emily’s husband to give to her.
“Any changes in what you’re feeling?”
Emily nodded, looking both alarmed and excited for what was to come.
“The pressure’s gotten a lot stronger and I definitely feel like I want to start pushing.”
Dana grinned, reaching a hand out to gently feel and examine her client’s bump, finding the muscles within to be much tighter than they had been an hour ago.
“Excellent, can I check your dilation one last time before we move forward? We don’t want to bruise your cervix by pushing too early,” Dana said, already moving forward as she spoke.
The final examination was fairly quick, Dana could easily tell that Emily had reached ten centimetres, and the excitement in the room was palpable.
“Alright, I’m going to go sanitize my hands thoroughly, and when I get back then we can get started.”
Dana quickly stepped back into the bathroom, closing the door behind her as she leaned against it nervously. She could feel another contraction beginning as she spoke with the couple, and it hit her harder than any of the others, nearly making her cry out before she bit her lips to hold back. She began to walk around the small space, catching a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror looking like a woman well in the throes of labour. She turned on the taps to mask any noises and to sound busy, then allowed herself some quiet groans as the pain peaked within her. It was only a couple more seconds until it began to subside, but the pain combined with the anxiety of feeling contractions in a client’s bathroom made it feel much longer.
Once the pain abated, she quickly yanked down her leggings and set one foot atop the toilet lid, wobbling for a moment due to her imbalanced centre of gravity. She struggled to reach around her heavy bump, visibly lower than it was even an hour ago. Slowly inserting her fingers, she fumbled around for the right angle to reach her cervix and nearly stumbled back off the toilet lid when she felt it. She was much more dilated than she anticipated, and had she been at home, this is the point where she would have called the babysitters and started preparing to head to the birth centre.
“Oh god, why now, baby?”
As she set her foot back on the floor and pulled her leggings back up, she felt a little pop within her and looked down to see a trickle of liquid running down her thighs and soaking the fabric there. Through the door, Dana could hear another contraction starting up for Emily, her moans faintly audible behind the sound of the running tap.
“Ffuck,” Emily groaned deeply, “I really need to push! NNgghhhhaahhh ooh ohh oohhhh pleaaaseee!!”
Hearing that, Dana raced into action in order to prioritise her client’s pain in the moment. She leaned down over the filled tub and splashed herself with the bathwater, making sure to get the front and the back of her leggings in order to cover up the evidence of her water breaking. Thoroughly washing her hands with the water that’s been steadily running into the sink, she finally turned off the tap and walked back into the bedroom as Emily’s noises died down.
“Alright Emily, I think we’re ready to start pushing now.”
Apparently the contraction had not completely ended, as Emily turned her head to glower at Dana.
“You keep saying ‘we’, we’renot doing anything! I’m the one giving birth here, not either of you!” She snapped, her words wavering as she grunts throughout them.
Dana smirked to herself at the irony of that statement, waiting for Emily to signal that the pain had finally stopped.
“Oh god, I’m so sorry Dana, I didn’t mean to yell at you like that,” Emily apologised as she felt the contraction end, and Dana just smiled and nodded in understanding.
“Why are you all wet?” Emily’s husband asked, furrowing his brow at how soaked Dana’s clothes were.
“Just a mishap with the tub, don’t worry about it. Did you want to start the pushing there or would you rather stay here in the bedroom?”
Another contraction had started remarkably soon after the last, and Emily only managed to point at the bed before succumbing to her groans of pain. Dana assisted her in slowly walking to the bed, helping her to kneel in front of it and rest her elbows against the mattress.
“Just breathe until this one ends, then we can get you into your ideal position and start pushing properly.”
Despite her instructions, it seemed like Emily had already begun pushing, as her chin was pressed down against her chest and she was grunting under her breath. Rather than say anything, Dana just rubbed the labouring woman’s back, applying some pressure where it would most relieve some of the ache. As Emily raised her head again, looking winded but satisfied, her husband and Dana supported her as she clambered atop the mattress, bringing the exercise ball atop the mattress so she could rest her arms on it as she kneeled. Dana moved around the mattress so she could kneel near her, close enough to reach out and help without crowding her.
“Okay, with the next contraction we- you’re going to push really deeply. You only push during your contractions, so make it count. Make whatever noises you want, you can grunt, pant, moan, just bear down as soon as that contraction hits.”
Emily nods, her husband sat next to her and whispering words of love and encouragement in her ear. Though Dana couldn’t hear them, the sight still made her smile and think about her own husband, wishing he was there to support her during her own contractions.
As another contraction hit Emily, she pressed her forehead firmly against the exercise ball, spreading her legs further apart as she pushed.
As Dana looked back and forth between Emily’s flushed face and her equally flushed cunt, she began to feel a contraction of her own rising and struggled to bury her reaction. She closed her eyes for a moment in pain, opening to see that thankfully neither of them had noticed. Emily’s contraction ebbs while Dana’s is still happening, but the couple whisper to themselves rather than seeking guidance from their midwife, allowing Dana to ride through the pain on her own.
This pattern continued for about fifteen minutes, Dana and Emily’s contractions happening in near tandem, making it difficult for Dana to concentrate on her job and equally difficult for Emily to notice her midwife struggling to hide her pain.
“OOOOhhhhhh oh god, oh god mmmmnnnnnnhhhh fuck,” Emily cried out with an especially bad contraction, holding her breath as she pushed.
“No, no, don’t hold your breath, you have to breathe or pant,” Dana corrected gently, rubbing Emily’s back. “hhhhuhhhh huhhhh huhhhh ooohhhhhhnggggghh!” Dana began to pant in order to demonstrate, but her contraction forced her to pant in earnest along with Emily, barely holding back from fully moaning. She vocalized alongside Emily for the next few contractions she experienced, pretending to coach her client as she found her own relief.
“NgghhhhaaaahhHHH OH FUCK OHHHHH! I CAN FEEL THE HEAD UHHHHHNNNnnnnn…”
Dana gingerly moved towards Emily’s open legs, each shuffle feeling like her baby is dropping lower within her, placing a hand against Emily’s pussy to examine her.
“Good job, baby’s so close, you’ll start crowning in a couple more–” Dana wasn’t able to finish that sentence as another contraction slammed into her, but Emily’s renewed moaning would have drowned out her words anyway.
“Mnnnnnhhhhhhhhh huhhh huhhh hnnnngGGHHHHH oh my god, oh god, oh god AAAAHHHHH!” Emily’s groans suddenly turned into shrieks, and she attempted to lunge forward against her exercise ball, her pendulous belly beneath her stopping her from moving far. She tried to close her legs, Dana’s hands against her thighs not letting her, and her husband held her steady as she panicked to try and get away from the pain.
“PLEASEEE oh fffuck, it’s burning it’s burning OOOOHHHHHH MMMNNNggghhhhh…” Her cries tapered into grunts as she pushed through the pain, and Dana watched as Emily’s pussy began to bulge with the force of the baby’s head against it. She pressed her hands there, applying steady pressure as the sliver of visible skin began to widen, the head emerging from within.
“uhhhhhhh huhhhh huhhHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNGGGGHHHHH!”
Emily was no longer able to speak through her contractions, her vocalisations as she pushed were raw and animalistic moans, her body desperately working to get her baby out. Dana cupped around the head as it moved forward, inch by inch, and she could feel Emily’s body straining under her hands as she held them over her burning hole. As Emily pushed, Dana could feel an intense contraction hitting her as well, making her double over despite herself, her head resting just above Emily’s back and giving her the perfect vantage point to see her lips stretch as the head emerged.
Luckily, Emily was too consumed with her pushing to notice, and her husband was solely focused on her, so Dana was free to ride out her contraction without either of them noticing. Keeping her hands against the bulge of the partial crown, Dana closed her eyes and began to moan under her breath as she was gripped by pain. The only things she noticed were the pangs of her contraction, the heat of Emily’s cunt beneath her hands, and the earthy and intense scent of sweat and birth around her.
Dana’s contraction finally ended and she was snapped back into awareness by a sudden jolt from Emily as the head moved even further out of her.
“No, no, nnghhhhh fuck I can’t do this!” She moved to stand up, her husband holding her up and looking at Dana in alarm. “Please, I need to be in the tub hhhhnnnnnngghhhhhh”
Dana nodded quickly, getting up from the mattress as best as she could with the feeling of pressure in her pelvis.
“Get her into the tub and I’ll be right behind you with the supplies.”
Dana couldn’t help but watch as Emily slowly made her way into the bathroom, barely able to walk and leaning heavily on her husband. Her legs were spread far apart, and with each step Dana could see the head peeking out between them. Another contraction slammed her before she could even cross the bedroom’s threshold, and she nearly crumpled to the ground, being entirely held up by her husband’s arms as she bore down in a squat and the baby’s head slid down even further.
“OH GOD IT BURNS, IT’S COMING OUT RIGHT NOWWWWW MMMMMNNNNNNNNHHHH!”
As this contraction subsided, Emily’s husband swept her into the bathroom as quickly as he could, the head peeking out as she followed alongside him.
Dana was about to follow them in with her equipment when another contraction hit her and she found herself using the exercise ball for support in nearly the exact same position as Emily was. With the couple occupied in the other room, Dana allowed herself to vocalize, breathy moans escaping her as she contracted. She could feel the pressure getting more intense by the minute and as soon as it let up she scurried to the bathroom, eager to deliver this baby before her own arrived.
Emily was on her hands and knees in the water, leaned against the lip of the tub with her back facing Dana, allowing the midwife to easily observe the delivery. Dana could see the muscles tightening in Emily’s body as she pushed, screaming as her baby’s head reached a full crown.
Dana cupped her hand around the emerging head again, using her other hand to rub Emily’s back.
“The head is fully crowned, do you want to feel?” At Emily’s frantic head-shaking, Dana applied firmer pressure to her back and smiled. “That’s alright, for the next contractions I don’t want you to push, you’re just going to pant and let the baby emerge naturally so you don’t tear anything.”
Another contraction hit Dana as she finished speaking and she panted alongside Emily while watching the head slowly slide out. It took two contractions of the women breathing through them together before the head fully emerged and Dana was able to check for the cord.
“Head is out guys, just a couple more big pushes until you meet your baby!”
Emily straightened up her back, seemingly invigorated by this, and bore down again desperately.
“MMmmm MMMmmm MMMMMNNNGGHHHHH OHHHHHH!”
Bizarrely, hearing Emily’s labouring noises was helping Dana feel a bit of relief, as if she were imagining that her own body was bearing down to get her baby out. Upon noticing her thighs shaking, Dana realized that she actually was bearing down, that she’d been holding back for so long that her body instinctively started pushing anyway.
“Pushpushpush, you’re doing so well! PUSH!” This was the first time the soft-spoken man had yelled out his encouragement, having previously whispered it to his wife intimately, but it seemed like the excitement of nearly meeting their baby had gotten to him too. This encouragement to push unfortunately also affected Dana, who widened her knees to push, even as she reached forward and caught the newly-born baby.
Dana rubbed the baby’s back until he began to wail and rested him against his mother’s bare chest.
“Congrats, it’s a boy,” she said, leaving the bathroom under the guise of giving the new family some space. Immediately upon reaching the bedroom, she rested herself against the bed and pressed a hand against the crotch of her leggings in order to determine how dire her situation was. Not feeling any external signs, just intense pressure within, she decided to complete the post-birth tests as quickly as she possibly could before making her escape.
Dana could not remember anything about her postnatal care of the mother and baby, relying solely on muscle memory as she worked on autopilot to focus on not giving birth on the floor right in front of her clients. Triple-checking the results of her tests to ensure she hadn’t missed something vital, she made a mental note to set up a follow-up appointment for them with someone before she haphazardly grabbed her bag and closed the bedroom door behind her.
“Ffuck fuck ohhhhhh huhhh huhhhhhhhhh…”
Dana dropped to her knees outside of the room, counting on the baby’s crying to drown out the sounds of her labour. A contraction had her doubled over on the floor, and she gathered all her energy to bear down desperately. She nearly cried out again in shock as she felt the baby slide down much farther than she expected, increasing the pressure between her legs. As it abated, she used the wall to stabilize herself and slowly shuffled down the hall.
As she stepped onto the top stair, she felt another jolt as her baby moved further down, feeling like the head was about to pop out of her if she took another step. The muscles of her womb tightened again and she squatted on the stairs, far enough from the bedroom to freely vocalize.
Once the haze of pain cleared, Dana was left with the realization that if she kept doing this she would end up giving birth on the stairs. Steeling herself, she placed a hand against her clothed pussy and pressed up, trying to hold back against the head coming out until she could get out of this house. Her desperation-fueled adrenaline allowed her to get all the way down the stairs before her next contraction where she was squatting in front of the couch, holding herself up with one hand and pressing between her legs with the other.
Dana kept her face muffled against the cushions as she screamed, feeling the warring sensations of her body pushing the baby down while her hand pressed up to prevent it.
“MMMMMMMMMMMM NNNGGGGHHHHHAAAAA! NO no not yet baby, we’re almost out!” She pleaded with her bump, eying the door desperately and rushing towards it as soon as the contraction ended, beginning to feel a bulge pressing against her hand.
As she exited the house, another wave hit her and she was struck with the realization that giving birth in the house would have been much better than giving birth outside it. She pressed her head against the door to hide her expression from any prying neighbours as she moaned under her breath, tears pricking at her eyes from the strain.
Dana looked incredibly strange walking to her car soaking wet with a hand pressed against her pussy, but she stumbled into the backseat and locked the doors behind her. Immediately pulling down her leggings, she sat at the edge of one of the seats with her legs up against the headrest in front of her, bearing down with a shriek.
The hand that was holding the baby in was now ready to catch, and Dana could feel the head rapidly emerging from within her now that she wasn’t holding anything back. With her other hand, she fumbled for her phone to call her husband–or anyone who could provide moral support–but she dropped it to the floor as she was trying to call.
The burning sensation was beginning, and though this was her third child it never got any easier. The baby was coming quickly, stretching her skin thinly around it as she tried to hold it back once more to prevent tearing.
Dana knew not to push but she was tempted to do so anyway, needing to get her baby out after ages of holding back her labour. She made sure the baby was in the right position and that the neck was clear of the cord before making one final push and catching her baby in her arms.
“UHHHHH NNNNGGGGHHHHHH! Oh fuck, oh… oh my god,” she began to cry as she brought her baby to her chest, helping the newborn to latch on as she caught her breath.
“Baby? Can you hear me? Hello??”
Dana was startled by the sound of someone speaking, then looked down and realised that her phone call had connected after all. Incredibly sore, she leaned down to pick up her phone and responded to her husband.
“Dana, what the fuck was that?? Did you have the baby??”
“Would you believe me if I said that was the client?” She joked breathlessly.
I was not very active recently…not even somehow active. I didn’t feel to post anything and I didn’t have anything to post. I was not into cooking at all.
This simple meal with beans is the only meal I cooked last week. I am sharing this recipe because it is not necessary to cook complicated meals with various ingredients. Sometimes you need to make something very basic to come back to normal life. For me, it’s cooking because when I do not cook at all it’s the indicator for me that I have the lowest level of energy and I want to regain it.
1. What is required:
1 can of beans
2 tomatoes
a big heap of spinach
favourite spices the more the better. I used garlic powder, cumin, herbal pepper, chilli powder, the mix of Indian spices I needed to use up)
2. Rinse your beans. Cut tomatoes into cubes. Sauté tomatoes in a big pot. This time I added all spices in one go because I could not care less. I was just satisfied that I made myself cook.
I used up the Indian mixture, I don’t even remember what it was. Probably, coriander, cumin, clove… It can be omitted or replaced with what you have. I added 2 tsp garlic, 2 tsp chilli, 1 tsp cumin, and 2 tsp herbal pepper. Always adjust spices to your taste. If you don’t like fragrant food, don’t use cumin. Add less or omit chilli, if you are not a fan of hot spice food.
3. Cook tomatoes over medium heat with some water for 5-7 minutes. Add beans. Mix well to coat beans with spices. Cook for 15 minutes more.
4. Add spinach and mix well. Cook until spinach wilted.
I served it with rice, tofu, and micro greens. Simple meal is what I needed. I feel I am coming back
Please take care…Life is not meaningless I guarantee
““Swantepolk, duke of Pomerania, learning of the absence of the (Teutonic Order) brothers and the citizens of Elbing, proceeded there after gathering a great army to attack the fort and town. Seeing this, the women (of Elbing), laying aside feminine adornment, put on a male frame of mind, girded the sword upon the thigh, and ascended the battlements, comporting themselves so manfully for their defence that nowhere was the weakness of their sex apparent. Hence, the duke, thinking that the brothers and townsmen had returned, retreated in fear.Nor should you believe that this only happened here, but (also) many times in other places where in the absence of men the fortifications would have been endangered, if the boldness of the women had not put a resistance.”
Thus Peter of Dusburg, a priest of the military monastic Teutonic Order, depicts an attack on the order’s town of Elbing by the Duke of Pomerania (ally of the Prussian pagans) in 1245. Dusburg’s chronicle, completed in 1326, describes his order’s long crusade against the pagan Old Prussians and Lithuanians (…). Scholars believe Dusburg utilized reports from eyewitnesses and the order’s own oral tradition, since written sources can only be found for only a small part of Dusburg’s section III. The story of the “manly” women of Elbing does not appear in the known sources for his chronicles.
Of course, this leaves the problem of sheer invention by the chronicler to entertain and edify. There is no a priori reason to assume such stories must be invented. Elsewhere in medieval Europe, women did sometime take part in combat, even fighting with sword and lance. We will see that there are story of bellicose women much more factually told in the chronicles of the Teutonic Order and the Order of Sword Brothers in Livonia.
(…)
We have a much more matter-of-fact, first-hand account of women on the battlements in the Baltic wars by Henry of Livonia whose chronicle relating the exploits of the Livonian order of Sword brothers was finished in 1226-1227. (…) Indeed, he was active in the Livonian wars in what is now Latvia and Estonia from 1205 onwards and is thought to have been present at the attack on Riga in 1210 described here:
“Fishermen from all parts of the Daugava River fled to Riga, announcing that (the pagan Curonian) army was following them. The citizens and the brothers of the Order and the crossbowmen, although they were few in numbers with clerics and women all rushed to arms... some of us having brought small three pronged iron nails, scattered these on the road…”
(…)
For the chroniclers of the military orders conducting the Baltic crusade, women in heaven and on earth were not excluded from participation in battle. By definition, there could be no civilians, no bystanders in a war seen as an elemental struggle between God and demons. Women were physically weaker, but God or the Devil could give them strength to become virile at least in their own defense. Probably this partially reflects the reality of life in an area in which the main form of warfare was the raiding party which sought to kill or capture everyone in its path. Women grew up or moved in as colonists to a war zone, and perhaps on some occasion they became warlike. On Christianity’s norther frontier, or at least in the world of its chroniclers, women had equal opportunity to be brave and brutal.”
“”Nowhere was the fragility of their sex apparent”, Women warriors in the Baltic crusade chronicles”, Rasa Mazeika
Little is known of Liang Hongyu’s (d.1135) origins. She was a courtesan in Jiangsu province, China. Some stories pretend that she was in fact the a daughter of a general, was taught martial arts, and was forced to become a courtesan after her family fell into disgrace.
It was when serving at a banquet that she met her future husband, the future general Han Shinzhong. She befriended him and eventually married him. According to another version of her story, it was him who taught her military skills.
She joined her husband in his fight against the invading Jurchen of the Jin dynasty, acting as his close military assistant. She once rushed at the head of her troops to try to rescue Han Shizhong who had found himself encircled by the enemy.
In 1129, commander-General Miao Fu rebelled against Emperor Gaozong and planned to seize control of the imperial throne through the emperor’s son. Hongyu managed to get an audience with the empress dowager and warned her of the conspiracy. The dowager allowed her to go fetch her husband. Liang Hongyu reached him after a long ride and convinced him to march to the capital to end the rebellion. Hongyu was rewarded for her loyalty with the title of “Consort of State Protection”. The state also granted her the salary of a military general.
She and Han Shinzhong resumed their fight against the Jin troops. In 1130, she distinguished herself during a battle on the Yangzi river. Hongyu beat the drum all the while to motivate the troops and the Song soldiers were victorious. She then wrote the court and begged them to pay her and her husband their salary. Her request was granted by the emperor.
As the Jurchen retreated northward, Hongyu and her husband volunteered to establish a military settlement in Chu Prefecture. She died the same year in 1135. The emperor gave 500 taels of silver and many bolts of silk to her family.
Her story was later immortalized through many legends, plays and songs.
Bibliography:
Bennett Peterson Barbara, Notable Women of China: Shang Dynasty to the Early Twentieth Century
Hello! the past like couple weeks i have been logged out of tumblr and couldn’t get back into my account, but thankfully i am back so i can get back to making cc! i have a few projects coming up hopefullyyy… i hope everyone is doing well!
Hello everybody! I’ve been away too long. I hope some of you still remember me. I hope to get back into the swing of things and maybe you guys can help me. It’s good to be back.
