A New Member of the Family
When the sun broke the night sky, Dad was the first to hear Mom’s groaning and jump out of bed.
“Tuuli, Myne. Your mother’s going into labor. I’m going to get the midwife! You two get dressed and do what you need to do!” Dad said while speedily getting dressed and bursting out of the house to get the midwife.
Everyone but me seemed to know what their roles were, and before I knew it Tuuli was changed and racing for the front door. “I’ll go get Karla! Myne, you change and look after Mom!”
“Okay!” I gave a big nod, swept up in the moment, but really I didn’t know what I was supposed to do while looking after Mom. I was in such a panic that nothing came to mind.
“Um, umm...”
“Myne. Water, please,” asked Mom in a breathless tone. I hurried to the kitchen, where I poured water from the jug into a cup which I brought back to her. She gave me a faint smile and sipped the water.
I saw the large beads of sweat on her forehead and went to prepare a cloth, at which point I suddenly remembered something important.
...Cleanliness! Disinfection! Being sanitary is absolutely vital!
Our home was cleaner than most. Tuuli and Mom helped to keep the house clean since they thought I was just a clean freak, and by now everyone was used to washing their hands as a matter of habit. But the same was not true for the midwife and neighboring moms who would be coming to help.
“Wh-Wh-What should I do?!” I would at least want them to wash their hands and disinfect them with alcohol, but naturally there was no disinfectant alcohol in our house. “I-Is there any alcoholic drink here I could make something from... Um, umm...”
We didn’t have any alcoholic drinks pure enough to be used as a disinfectant like vodka was. The wine I used in the rumtopf was very high in alcohol content, but there would be too many impurities for it to be reliable. Had I returned home from the temple sooner, I could have asked Benno to find me some distilled liquor high in alcohol content.
“...But surely it’s better than nothing.” The filth of the outside was no doubt worse than the alcohol’s impurities. I found the wine and some clean clothes to prepare for disinfecting.
“I’m back. I’ll go get some water.”
The second Tuuli came back, she started to leave again with a bucket in hand. In her place came Karla and several other neighboring wives. They each held buckets full of water from the well, which they poured into a tub that they put over a fire to boil.
“Tuuli, we need to get everyone’s hands clean. And we need to put the tools in boiling water to disinfect them. We need to—” I jumped at Tuuli before she could leave the house to go and get water.
“Right, right. Cleanliness. I get it. Okay. I understand. So go be with Mom, Myne.” Tuuli ignored me, however, since I wouldn’t be of any help at all when it came to the birthing itself. She just pushed me into the bedroom and left.
I walked up to Mom and took her hand as she breathed heavily. When the labor pains hit her, she squeezed my hand so hard I thought my bones would break.
“Mom, when giving birth, you should breathe in and out. Like hee hee hoo. It’s called the (Lamaze) technique.”
“The... what?” Despite her pain, Mom gave me a faint smile.
“Umm, it’s a breathing technique to help with the pain. Sorry, I don’t really remember it too well.”
In my Urano days, I had never even considered that I would get pregnant myself or have anything to do with helping someone give birth, so I didn’t really bother to read much about pregnancy. I knew the name of the Lamaze technique, but didn’t remember enough to explain what it was or why it helped.
“Hee hee hoo, right?” Mom laughed and we breathed in and out together while she endured the labor pains.
Before long, the midwife and the neighboring wives came into the room. I gasped at the sight of them and spread my arms out in front of the bed to keep them away from Mom.
“Before you do anything, wash your hands to make sure they’re clean!”
“Aaah, right. I forgot you were a clean freak,” Karla said with exasperation, but she went ahead and told the other wives to clean their hands. Once that was done, I had them wipe their hands using my wine-soaked cloth.
That should help a little.
“Now, Myne, you’ll get in the way here. Go out to the kitchen. And tell that good-for-nothing Gunther to stop pacing around and get the chair set up. He’s had how many children and still won’t listen to what we say? Good grief.”
I grimaced at the sight of the drying cloth turning dirty as they dried their hands. That meant they weren’t getting clean at all, but before I could say anything Karla forced me out of the bedroom. Having no other choice, I told Dad what she had said and helped him set up the chair.
“Dad, what’s this chair thing for?” I asked, looking at the stained and dirty board that served as a seat. He told me it was where Mom would sit when giving birth.
The second I understood it was an old-fashioned delivery board, I felt the blood drain from my face. I grabbed the cloth and alcohol without even thinking about it. “...I have to disinfect it.”
“Myne, hey! What’re you doing with my wine?!”
“Mom’s going to be sitting on this, isn’t she? I need to disinfect it with alcohol.”
I ignored Dad’s cries and wiped away at the seat with the wine-soaked cloth, until eventually some older lady came to get it. She laughed at the sight of my furious polishing.
“Oh, you’re cleaning that as well? Hah, you sure are a clean freak. Gunther, that’s all we needed you for. Go on downstairs already, would you?”
Apparently, it was forbidden for men to be around during births. With Dad having completed all a father was expected to do, he went back downstairs.
“I’ll stay with Mom.”
“You go too, Myne. You’ll just get in our way crying about cleanliness and all that.”
“But it actually is important!”
“Sure, sure. Go on now.”
Tuuli was going in and out of the bedroom to help, but I was kicked out right away. The door shut behind me and I couldn’t get back in.
“Mom...”
They called me a freak just because I asked for the bare minimum level of cleanliness. Just thinking of historical childbirth death rates sent a shudder down my spine. I was so worried for Mom that I wanted to personally disinfect every single lady in there, but there was nothing more I could do.
Mom had gone into labor when the sun was just starting to rise, but now the sun was slightly above the horizon and shining enough light on the plaza for us to see clearly. We walked outside, and I saw that the neighborhood men were getting to work on some birds.
“Dad, what’s everyone doing?” I asked, walking over to the well where he was starting to pace restlessly and joining him.
“...Men can’t be there for the birth, so we’re preparing for the naming ceremony.”
“What’s a naming ceremony?”
Kids couldn’t enter the temple until their baptism, so I wouldn’t expect there to be any religious ceremonies for babies. But judging by the name, I could guess that it was something of a small neighborhood celebration.
According to Dad, men were sent off by the women during the birth to go and buy birds, pluck them, and grill them for the naming ceremony. It was a small celebration where the men cooked for themselves since their wives weren’t there to feed them, the women who had finished helping with the birth were rewarded with food, and everyone celebrated the birth of a new child.
“Why the heck are you two pacing around the well?” someone asked. I turned to see Lutz in his Gilberta Company apprentice uniform grinning at us, barely holding back laughter.
“Lutz!”
He glanced in the direction of our house. “...How’s Mrs. Effa? Is it happening now?”
I nodded.
“Guess you won’t be going to the temple today, then. I’ll go pass the word along.”
“Thanks, Lutz.”
“And I guess I’ll take this opportunity to say I’ll be missing work today. There’s a naming ceremony coming up, yeah? The baby’s definitely gonna be born healthy; I know I’ll need to miss work,” said Lutz with a grin.
Dad grinned back and gave a hearty nod.
After seeing Lutz off, Dad and I resumed pacing around the well.
“Dad, don’t you need to tell the gate you’ll be missing work?”
“Al did that for me when he went off to buy the birds. I’m not budging an inch from here.”
“Okay.”
As we continued pacing around the well, Lutz’s dad, Deid, called over to us in a booming voice. “Gunther, Myne! If you two can’t sit still, at least help us over here. This happens every time with you, Gunther, and it’s real tiring!”
Deid asked Dad and me to wash vegetables, which we did while crouching in front of the well and continuing our talk. I didn’t know how dangerous births were here, so if I didn’t keep my mind occupied with something, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from rushing back inside.
“Dad, how long do births usually take?”
“All I remember is how waiting for you and Tuuli to be born took forever. It felt like I was out here all day.”
“Your births were real fast, Gunther. Al’s child took a lot longer,” said Deid, who had come over to get water, with a dismissive shake of his head.
From Dad’s perspective it may have taken a long time, but according to everyone else my mom tended to give birth relatively quickly. That was a relief to me, but Dad just frowned, his brows pushed together in a pitiful expression.
“Doesn’t matter to me whether it was fast or slow. As long as the birth goes safely this time, I don’t care how long it takes.”
“This time?” I asked without thinking too much about it. Maybe he was saying he wanted a healthy child this time instead of a sickly one like me.
“Our first child was a miscarriage. The next was a boy, but he died before the year was up. You and Tuuli survived, but the next one didn’t last the winter. And the next was another miscarriage. I want the baby to be safe this time.”
The cruel reality of birth survival rates here made my jaw drop in horror. I had read about how low they were in books about the middle ages, with most children not lasting very long at all, but it never properly clicked in my head until now. It carried so much more of a terrifying weight when I heard it from Dad, who had seen his children die prematurely himself. The fear was so much that I couldn’t help but look up to the fifth floor of our building. Mom was in there, fighting for her life and the baby’s.
“Mom will be okay, won’t she?”
“...Myne, you should pray for her.”
I shot my arms up and prayed to the gods from the bottom of my heart. “May my mother have the blessing and divine protection of Entrinduge, Goddess of Childbirth and subordinate to the Goddess of Water.”
Lutz came back from the Gilberta Company and orphanage with a large basket on his back. He set it down in front of us and started taking out the contents. “Myne, here’s a gift of cloth from Master Benno. And when I told your chambers and the workshop about this, Hugo gave us a share of the meat from Brother Syl’s hunt the other day.”
“...But the baby hasn’t even been born yet.” Still, everyone’s support made me break into a happy smile. “I’ll bring these smaller pieces of bird meat home for Mom to eat. We can have the bigger pieces and the deer meat at the ceremony. But that’ll only be when she’s given birth and the hard-working ladies come outside. You can have some too, Lutz, since you went out and got it,” I said, handing Lutz some of the meat.
Dad showed his approval with an enthusiastic nod, and it was then that Tuuli came bursting out into the plaza, her braid bouncing behind her and a full smile on her face.
“Dad, Myne! It went okay! The baby’s a boy!”
“Oooh! Congratulations!” The plaza erupted in a cheer. Thanks to the safe birth, the naming ceremony began and drinking started. The dads said their words of celebration while reaching for beer and starting to cook the meat on pans which had been prepared ahead of time.
“They said you two can come back in. Let’s go.”
The first ones to go and see the baby were the family. Dad, with the basket Lutz had brought on his back, picked me up and cleared the stairs two steps at a time. He was so overjoyed that he ran the entire five stories.
When Dad burst into our home, he thanked the women still inside for their work as they finished cleaning up. They, in turn, congratulated him, and told him how healthy the baby boy looked.
“Dad, don’t bring outside (germs) into the bedroom!”
Before Dad could race into the bedroom, I had him set down the basket and clean his hands. The women called me a clean freak again, but I ignored them. I needed to wash my hands too.
“Mom, can we come in?”
“Gunther, Myne, it’s a boy.”
“Good job, Effa! I’m glad you’re both safe!” Dad knelt in front of Mom’s pillow and took her hand, planting kisses all over the back of her hand and along her fingers.
The baby resting against Mom’s exhausted chest was tiny and covered with little wrinkles, and his skin glowed with the redness of youth. The sight of the little guy washed clean and wearing the little baby clothes Tuuli had made was so moving that I let out an emotional sigh.
“So, what are you going to name the baby?”
“You’ve already decided, right? What’s the name?” Tuuli asked, her eyes bouncing between Mom and Dad excitedly. They both nodded at the same time, then looked at each other and smiled while stroking the baby’s head.
“We’re going to name him ‘Kamil.’ What do you think?” asked Mom.
“Kamil? Kamil... Ahaha.” Tuuli giggled and poked Kamil’s cheek.
Mom watched with a smile, then looked in my direction. “Myne, do you want to try holding him? Tuuli has already.”
That sounded amazing, but I was scared of dropping him. If I remembered correctly, newborn infants weighed about three kilograms on average. Would I be able to carry him?
As I stressed over that, Mom’s expression clouded. “You don’t want to?”
“No, I do. It’s just... I don’t know how to hold babies, and I’m scared of dropping him,” I explained, making Dad burst out in laughter.
He lifted me up, still laughing, and took off my shoes before setting me down on the bed. “If you hold him while sitting on the bed, you don’t have to worry about dropping him.”
While sitting beside Mom, I carefully picked Kamil up. He was small and light enough for even me to carry. His mouth moved and his eyes opened, looking in my direction with an unfocused gaze. He was alive, and that filled my heart with warmth.
“Kamil, Kamil. It’s me, your big sister.”
I spoke to Kamil, which made his wrinkly face get even more wrinkly. Then, he started to cry, letting out a tiny wail.
“M-Mom. He started crying. Kamil is, um... Wh-What do I do?”
“Don’t worry, dear. Babies always cry. It’s what they do.”
So she said, but that didn’t help at all. I still didn’t know what I should do. All I could do was anxiously look around the room, feeling on the verge of tears, until Dad eventually stopped standing by and picked up Kamil with a grin. Kamil protested with a few more weak wails, but Dad was unfazed.
“Alright, time to introduce Kamil to everybody.”
“Wait, what? You’re going to take a newborn baby outside?”
“Course I am. We’ve gotta show everyone Kamil, remember?”
It wasn’t even debatable that taking a defenseless newborn outside right after it had been born would make it more likely to die. I gasped with fear. “Dad, do you really have to take him outside?”
“Yeah. What’re you trying to say?”
“It’s too dangerous to take a newborn baby outside. You’ll be exposing him to the cold and all the (bacteria) out there. His chances of getting sick will shoot up super high!” I explained as fervently as I could, and Dad’s expression hardened a bit. He looked between me and Kamil, deep in thought, then shook his head with a frown.
“You might be right, but we can’t ignore tradition.”
“If he has to go outside, could you at least keep him warm, and make sure nobody touches him with their dirty hands? You really have to get back inside as soon as you can. That still may not be enough, but—”
“You’re just being silly, Myne. It’ll be fine,” Tuuli said with a shrug. But newborn babies really were at great risk of dying. Especially in an environment like this.
Dad, having just said at the well how much he wanted this baby to be safe, looked up with resolution in his eyes and wrapped Kamil in a warm-looking cloth. “I just gotta get back in as soon as I can, yeah?”
“Uh huh. Take care not to let anybody else hold him.”
“You’re both being way too overprotective,” Tuuli continued in an exasperated tone. “Everybody takes their babies outside to introduce them.”
That may have been so, but in an environment like this, no amount of overprotectiveness could ever be enough. The phrase “better safe than sorry” didn’t even begin to cover it.
I went back down to the well with Tuuli and Dad, who was still carrying Kamil. There we found that there was a big barbeque going on in the plaza—the aforementioned naming ceremony. Here the neighborhood wives who helped with the birth would be rewarded, and the baby would be introduced to everyone. This was how the neighborhood kept track of who was born in what year, who would be attending which baptism ceremony, and so on. There were no written records, so all we could do was get everyone together and leave lasting memories.
“Everyone, thanks for getting up so early in the morning. My son was born safely. His name is Kamil. I’d like you all to welcome him as a new member of our neighborhood.”
After announcing his name, Dad held Kamil up high so everyone could see, then quickly gave him to Tuuli and urged them back inside, giving the excuse that he might be as weak as I was. Everyone nodded, well aware that I was so sickly it wouldn’t be a surprise if I were to suddenly drop dead.
“It would be a disaster if Kamil was just as weak as Myne.”
“She still gets fevers, but isn’t she getting a little better? I sure hope everything will be fine now that she’s been baptized.”
I hurried back inside with Tuuli, all the while hearing people talk about how none of them expected me to last until my baptism after all my close calls with death. Personally, I would feel more comfortable eating at my own pace inside, rather than fearfully eating barbeque in the plaza while wondering whose hands touched what. Not to mention that I had been told not to go outside without a bodyguard. Although I had been forced outside during the birth, it would probably be wise not to hang around any longer than I absolutely had to.
“Tuuli, what is Mom going to eat?”
“I’ll get her something from the barbeque,” replied Tuuli. It seemed like she really wanted to participate in the barbeque, as she rushed back downstairs right after giving Kamil back to Mom.
I lit a fire on the hearth and warmed up yesterday’s leftover soup. While waiting, I worked my way through the basket that Dad had haphazardly dropped in the corner. I took the bird meat Hugo had prepared to the winter storage room, and put the cloth from Benno in the normal storage area.
“Mom, are you hungry? I warmed up some soup. Your milk won’t be as good if you don’t eat.”
“That’s true. I think I will have some, if you don’t mind.”
I brought soup to Mom as she sat in bed. I got a bowl of my own, too, and set down a chair beside the bed so I could eat with her.
“You’re not going to the barbeque, Myne?”
“Nuh uh. Sir Damuel told me not to go outside without him.”
“I see,” said Mom, her heavy tone reminding me that she was worried about how little time I spent with our neighbors. It hurt that I couldn’t do anything about that. Nobody who knew what I knew about hygiene and sanitation would eat down there.
“Oh, right. Lutz brought us cloth from Benno and meat prepared by my attendants in the temple workshop. Do we need to give them something back or do something for them?” I asked, unsure of what was customary here.
Mom shook her head. According to her, all we had to do was give them gifts ourselves when they had children. That didn’t seem necessarily fair to me, since Benno was a self-proclaimed lifelong bachelor, and most of the people in the temple weren’t exactly in any position to get married.
“That said, Myne, would you please tell them all about Kamil? We want as many people as possible to remember Kamil’s birth.”
“Okay. You can count on me,” I said with a big nod while looking at my tiny baby brother sleeping next to Mom. The sight of him sleeping cozily in a big cloth to stay warm made my own eyes droop.
“Kamil sure is cute.”
“Isn’t he?”
I didn’t have much time to be with Kamil. Since I would be leaving when he turned two, it was entirely possible that he wouldn’t even remember me when he grew up. The most I could do was make picture books and toys for him, both to help him through life once I was gone and to help me stick in his memories as his big sister.
...If picture books are all I can make, I’ll just have to make a whole library of them for my cute little brother.
The black and white picture books would suffice for when he turned two, maybe three months old, but I would want more colorful ones for when he hit six months. That meant I needed to develop colored ink, and think of content for the new baby books.
...Wait. Now that I think about it, there’s a lot I need to do, isn’t there? Am I actually going to be pretty busy over the next two years?
If I wanted to go all out making picture books for Kamil as he grew older, maybe I wouldn’t even have time to print pure text books in the first place. It didn’t matter that the printing press was off-limits. I could just keep on improving the stencils.
...I have a time limit. I need to work fast. Kamil, your big sister’s gonna do everything she can!
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