chapter 2 The pains of labour

The pain was beyond excruciating, never has she felt anything as painful as this before, so she bit her lip to avoid screaming and drawing attention to herself, which she knew was not going to good either to herself or to the baby that was coming, so she turned around to avoid the woman from noticing her ,luckily for her the woman's head was bent, she was about bringing out the extra one cowry that she had added for Dabi, so she didn't see the change in Dabi's expression a second ago.

Confusion and fear could be seen written clearly on Dabi's face, she knew what was coming, but why now is her question? how can this be? She asked? On this hot afternoon sun?

Everyone in the village knew the consequence of giving birth at this time of the day ,it is a popular belief in the village that child birth is much better at night or during the early hours of the morning when the heat of the sun was not harsh to impact the birth of the child by either causing excessive bleeding to the mother or by changing the fate of the child for the worst . They believed that children born during the afternoon hours are troublesome children that are bound to kill their parents with there disobedience and hot headedness that is if the mother survives labor birth. So what could this be? Am I going to die in labor today Dabi asked or is my child going to kill me with disobedience? All this questions kept flooding into Dabi's mind and so does fear. At last she comforted herself with the thought that her and danddy's baby cannot bring evil to them ,only good. She chanted it to herself a couple of more times before turning around to face the buyer.

With that conviction, she accepted the eight cowries the woman offered and quickly transferred the oil to her and left quickly to buy few baby things and walked backed home as fast as her feet could carry her…

On getting back she dropped her oil container, took the bag containing the requirements that was required by the maternity for child delivery which she had gathered during the course of her pregnancy and rushed to the local maternity but to her dismay the mid- wife has gone to the market and not at the local clinic. With no other choice, she set back for her home to meet her mother-in-law who was at home only because she's old and suffers from arthritis in the knee.

"NNE Rachel" Dabi's mother -in-law," NNE (meaning mother)as she's fondly called by all "was sitting at her door step on her rocking chair, watching as people go to and from the market while remising with a smile on her lips the good old days when she was health enough to join others to the market, that was until she spotted Dabi her daughter-in- law coming, Dabi's state made the smile on her face to disappear almost immediately, she frowned as she could see the way Dabi was walking, something is wrong she said to herself.

As a mother, when she looked out and saw her daughter- in- law coming she knew what was coming ,her thought been the same as her daughter- in- law before. Why this hot afternoon? How is the baby coming now ? is this a misfortune coming upon my family? Many questions flooded her mind at once but she consoled herself that God knows better with that she stood up with the aid of her walking stick and with much difficulty to put water on the local stove to hit up for use during the labour process, for she had reasoned that " if Dabi is coming back home that means there's no one at the maternity to assist her.

As Dabi walked in she called out for NNE , NNE!, NNE!! NNE!!! She kept calling until she saw NNE coming out of the kitchen towards her, Dabi complained on how she went to the local maternity and seeing no one and on how she had to walked back home now, she was still complaining when another contraction hit her, she shouted and pointed to her belly…"NNE is coming she whined "

NNE not being a woman of many words ,nodded and assisted her into her hut and instructed her to remove her wrapper and to use her head scarf to gag her mouth to muffle the screams that is bound to come. Dabi obeyed and did as she was told, further NNE instructed her to lie down on her back and to spread her legs as wide as she could so she could check her dilation and the position of the baby.