U: What is an Umbilical Cord- Flash Fiction

Christy sat on the cool rock under the shade of a strange tree. Her friend’s spaceship burning in the distance. The crash had done it, she knew it had. Far away from any birthing center and on an uninhabited planet no less.

 The tightening pains were every 4 minutes or so. Her friend dragged a piece of metal piled with everything she could salvage from the wreck.

 “Janice do you think the baby will be ok?” Christy mumbled through gritted teeth.

 “He should be old enough to survive birth, yeah,” Janice answered.

 “Did it hurt this much when you had Daren? What was it like?” Christy asked, begging Janice to distract her.

 Janice looked worriedly at their surroundings, at their meager pile of equipment, and then to Christy’s swollen tummy hidden under the floral print of Christy’s dress.

 “I didn’t have any pain at all, I checked in at the birthing center. They took care of all that. I lay down and mostly just daydreamed... watched a few vids... a few hours later looked up to see my little Daren in the nurse’s arms.”

 Christy gulped and gritted her teeth again as another particularly strong wave of pain cascaded over her.

 “Do you think something is wrong? Is it supposed to feel like this?”

 “I dunno, we were just told to go to the birthing center at a certain number of days.” Janice knelt down beside Christy and felt her tummy, “My grandmother told me that birthing used to be different but she never explained it.”

 Janice unlaced Christy’s boots and invited her to put her feet in the sand to help keep her cool. A gentle breeze blew the soft sand and the hem of her dress soothingly around her ankles. Christy let her mind wander through the swaying of the leaves in the tree above her as she rode through each new wave of pain.

 Suddenly Christy’s watch beeped at her shaking her from her zone. Irritated she unclasped it and threw it out from under the tree and into the sand before heading back into the solace of the swaying branches. Janice jumped up and chased after the watch, brushing off the sand.

 “Hello! Hello!” She cried. “Yes, Kipling 1 we heard your distress call. Do you need assistance?” A voice called over the watch through the static.

 “Janice!!!” Christy cried out loudly, arching her back with a particularly large contraction.

 “Yes, I need to get my friend to a birthing center immediately!” Janice answered in a panic.

 “Ma’am, from the sounds of things it is a bit too late for that. The baby is coming already. You have two things to remember:

•  Keep momma comfortable 
• And tie off the umbilical cord so the baby doesn’t bleed to death."

 Janice looked at her friend in fear. Why oh WHY didn’t they teach you how to do this in parenting classes! What in the universe is an umbilical cord!


->photo credit: Mui ne - Sanddüne - Vietnam via photopin (license) <-

Today's post was also inspired by the letter U. U is for: Umbilical   as part of the Blogging from A to Z April 2015 challenge! Click on the letter to join on in the fun!

Every day (excluding sundays) I will be writing a post about something that begins with the letter for that day. Most of the time you will find a sci-fi flash fiction piece here.

This post is ALSO part of the 52 week flash fiction challenge on facebook
Week 5 word prompt: Bleed
Word Limit: 20- 500
This one tops out right at  491 words.

For Readers: I was trying to capture a moment in time where certain things we learn today might be missed as our technology advances if we don't continue to pass down the "old ways".  What are some things now that we have "forgotten" how to do because we have technology? Do you think we can do without those lessons or do you think they are still important?