“You say the birth canal bends at the pelvis? How does the baby usually present? Head first or butt first?”
“Usually the head and front feet come first.” Cortez reached under the mother’s belly. “I can’t tell if the baby’s in the right position.”
This is nuts.
Estelle stepped back. “I’m not sure what you expect me to do. Out here, I’m not equipped to do a C-section on a person, much less a mammoth.”
Sera bit her lip, her eyes pleading.
Cortez looked just as bleak. “You must have some suggestion. What would you do for a human giving birth outside a hospital if labor was going slow like this?”
Estelle tried to keep an eye on the grazing herd as well as on the mother. Those tusks—whether by nature or by human design, they had the ideal curve to gore an adversary. “If she were one of my patients, I’d encourage the mother to change position. Sometimes walking helps, but your Opal is already on her feet.” Estelle shrugged. “Sometimes encouraging the mother to lie on her side instead of her back will help the baby move into a better position.”
To her surprise, Cortez brightened. “Great! I’ll try that. Opal, kneel.”
At that unreasonable command, the mammoth groaned just like any birthing human mother would.
“Kneel, Opal. Kneel.”
The great beast squatted, lowering her rear to her knees.
“Good girl,” Cortez said. “Now down. All the way down, down.”
Another groan, and she rolled onto her right side.
The nursemaid mammoth swayed and rumbled. She doesn’t like that a bit.
“It’s all right, Ruby,” Cortez murmured. “This might help. Good girl, Opal.”
Lying on her side, the mammoth looked exhausted. Her side heaved with every pant.
Cortez bit a lip. “She can’t stay down for long. Lying down compresses the heart and lungs.”
In med school, Estelle had held a human heart in her hand. She couldn’t even imagine what a mammoth heart must be like, the muscles and size needed to power such a big animal.
On her side, Opal let out a long groan. Silence followed, no intake of breath.
Estelle tensed, fearing that the end had come for both mother and infant.
Sera gripped her arm. “Can’t we do something?” Estelle just shook her head.
There was a mammoth-sized gasp. Opal raised her head and squealed. Scrabbling her legs, she rocked once, twice, then rolled back onto her feet like a circus elephant who’d just finished her trick.
Nursemaid mammoth immediately went to her with comforting pats of the trunk and sniffs at her nether regions.
“You did it!” Cortez cried. “Thank you, Doctor.”
“Did what?”
“The baby’s coming, can’t you see?”
Now that he pointed it out, she did see. Below the mammoth’s tail protruded a barrel-sized bulge.
“Omigod,” Sera breathed. “Is that normal?”
“Completely. The baby’s passed the pelvis. Now we just wait.”
Opal seemed unable to stay still. She rocked and shuffled her feet: three paces forward, three paces back, then turning and retracing her steps. Nursemaid stayed close to her side, touching her head, mouth, and flanks with the tip of her trunk.
Opal shuffled backward and forward, kicked and stooped, stamped and turned.
Something white showed for a moment from the bulge under Opal’s tail.
Sera paled but snapped another picture.
“That’s the birth sac,” Cortez said. “The baby will come soon. Good girl, Opal. Just a little longer. Your baby’s almost here.”
Opal screeched. The white birth sac dropped again, and hung there, half in and half out. Opal groaned, spreading her back legs in a half crouch.
Estelle ached to do something, anything, that would help her.
Sera called encouragement. “You can do it, girl! Just one more big push!”
The birth sac fell with a splash and splat. A man-sized bundle lay on the trampled ground.
Immediately, Opal straightened and turned, touching the bundle with her trunk. Estelle was so relieved, she almost groaned herself.
Sera took a step forward, but Estelle held her back. “Wait. Never get between the mother and baby.”
Cortez was still crooning. “Come on, Opal. Check out your calf. Help her, Ruby. Show her what to do.”
The nursemaid mammoth moved in, reaching her trunk to the caul-covered baby. She nudged it with her foot.
The bundle didn’t move.
“What’s wrong?” Sera asked. “Shouldn’t it be crying or something?”
Nursemaid pulled back her foot and kicked the infant, hard.
CHAPTER 37
Godmothers
“What the hell?” Estelle was ready to jump down and defend the helpless calf.
Cortez held up a hand. “It’s all right. Elephants do that to help their babies get on their feet.”
Part of the infant’s pale covering slid off, exposing its coat of wet brown hair and the white soles of its little feet.
The nursemaid mammoth kicked it again, rolling it into a legs-down position.
It flopped over in the long grass and lay still.
Estelle clenched her fists. “Breathe, little one. Breathe.” She felt as anxious as waiting for a human child to make that first cry.
Sera echoed in a whisper, “Come on, baby. Breathe.”
No movement.
“Something’s wrong,” Sera said.
Cortez held back. “Wait.”
The mother tentatively prodded with her trunk, sniffing and caressing the product of months of pregnancy. She nudged it harder, rolling it out of its caul.
The baby’s furred side was still. Its closed eyes didn’t flutter. Its thin trunk lay lifeless on the ground.
Estelle couldn’t stand it. “It’s taking too long.” She dashed forward to kneel beside the calf, Sera right behind her.
“Rub the baby,” Estelle ordered. “Help expel any fluid in the air passage.” She shoved at the baby’s side in a rough, hard massage.
The mammoth mother and auntie growled protests. Cortez rushed to put himself in front of them, protecting the human helpers. “Hurry. I can’t hold them back for long.”
“Come on,
