Prologue June 12, 1982 - County Hospital - 7:38 a.m.

"Your baby is brow presentation."

Even without Dr. Yung's explanation Marla Townsend knew what that meant. After all she was a nursing student and currently working on her Bachelors of Science. She had skipped this semester because of her baby's due date. After having her baby and getting their housing situation straight, she fully planned to return this fall to complete her last year of studies. She blinked and then turned refocusing her attention back onto the doctor.

"You're going to need a C-section. Not to mention most of your amniotic fluid has drained out; the baby's condition is turning critical." She cringed at Dr. Yung's words.

"Nooooo… I don't want a C-section." Marla screamed against the hoarseness of her vocal cords. Her voice was barely audible from all of the overnight hollering, crying and screaming that she had been doing.

She ached all over and because of her condition she had gotten zero sleep. What was her reward for having been kept up all night laboring trying to deliver her baby? She had only dilated a mere six centimeters (cm). The last three days had been an agonizing hell as she struggled attempting to push out her baby boy and now she was exhausted. Tiny sweat beads covered her forehead, her throat was parched and she knew her hair was a mess all over her head. She was wishing right now for a couple shots of painkillers; this was not what she had expected. The nurse had even given her two shots of Pitocin to induce labor; however she still failed to completely dilate the full 10 cm needed to pass the baby through the birthing canal. Left with no other recourse, the doctor ordered a sonogram.

"Ms. Townsend do you want your baby to live?" He inquired in a no-nonsense manner that bespoke the gravity of the situation. Marla looked around her small room; not one of her family members had come to be with her; especial Jacob Ellis, the father of her child. She wrinkled up her nose slightly as she stared vacantly at nothing in particularly. Her eyes glistened with tears as she was assaulted with flashback memories.

'Why don't you abort the baby?' Jacob's voice entered her mind. She cringed at his heartless and ill-spoken words from over eight months ago. How could the father of the child respond so coldly and callus to her disclosure about having their baby. It wasn't like they had just met or were casually dating. They had been in what Marla believed was a monogamous and loving long term relationship over the last two and a half years. She had been dumbfounded by his words.




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