Ava saw the edge of panic and rested her hand very lightly on the young woman’s shoulder, sharing her calmness through touch as older, wiser midwives had shown Ava in the past. In response, Jessamine dug her fingers into Ava’s hand and squeezed as she bore down. ‘Don’t you let go,’ she ground out and Ava smiled.

‘You’re safe. Just breathe slowly and let the tightness roll over you like a wave.’

The outside door opened again. ‘And now we have Nurse Jill –’ the short, grey-haired nurse raised her brows at Ava in question – ‘who is back from the shop, so there are plenty of hands to look after you.’

By the time they’d helped Jessamine into the treatment room, another contraction had pushed a small rivulet of pink fluid to drip onto the floor, confirming Denise’s warning about broken waters. At least the colour of the liquid was reassuring, Ava thought, as she began to run through what she needed to do for an imminent delivery. The nurse grabbed a towel and dropped it on the puddle before someone slipped.

‘I can’t lie down.’ Jessamine leaned forward over the day bed the clinic used for critical patients, and with a nod from Ava, Denise moved around the other side to gently take the young woman’s hands in hers for comfort. Denise began to murmur soothing Pitjantjatjara words that dipped and hung quietly around her.

Relaxed a little by Denise’s crooning, Jessamine rocked and swayed, almost in a dance. Jessamine’s dusty footprints began to form a circle like a painting around the towel on the cream vinyl of the floor where she stood. She rocked and stepped through the escalating contraction, and Ava imagined the young mother was creating her own circle of safety. She liked the idea. They’d take all the help they could because she doubted any RFDS plane would make it in time for this baby.

Ava didn’t want to interrupt that instinctive response to her body that Jessamine had found to direct her labour. They wouldn’t have to wait long for another change that would indicate the labour had reached the point where Ava would have to look.

Jessamine made a strangled noise and Ava exchanged a glance with Zac that said, Right now.

‘Can we lift your dress, Jessamine, and see if the baby’s coming?’ Ava asked.

‘You’d better,’ Jessamine said with a groan as she shimmied out of her wet underwear, which plopped onto the floor. ‘’Cause somethin’s happenin’.’

When they lifted the damp skirt up to her back, a much thinner back than Ava expected, they could see the roundness of a tiny baby’s buttock.