The eleventh day of October.2.30pm
After months of fertility treatment
Temperature watching
Hormone boosting and tinkering
Injections and pills
The culmination approaches
Mode of delivery, induction.
A suppository. A syntocin drip
A doctor wearing a psychedelic tie
Inserts a tool, mechanically breaks the waters
Episiotomy. A slice with blade. A stitch up
Haig-Ferguson forceps, metal scoops
Like salad tongs, clamped over
The incoming head
I was floating, high as the ceiling
On pethidine, then dropped
Like a stone into sleep
My boy had arrived,
birth jaundice yellow
Colour of hair,black.
Nine months like Russian dolls,
One womb, two heart beats
Now we were parted,
He to a special nursery, under strong lights
Me to cool linen sheets, a healing sleep
Nothing prepares you for motherhood
Will I cope? Will I fail? Will he suckle?
He arrived into the time of the Iron Lady
Rallies held by the National Front
Jimmy Saville fixing it for himself
‘He'll be a charmer, ' the midwife said
Forcing his jaws open to face the teat
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem