In the morning, the consultant did another scan and some other tests were done to confirm the findings of the previous night, and at the conclusion of these tests, Michelle was admitted to the Ulster Hospital and immediately transferred to the Royal Jubilee Maternity Services Hospital in Belfast where we were eventually told what the cause of the problem was. Michelle had pre-eclampsiawhich is very dangerous, and potentially fatal to both mother and babyif it is not caught early enough. This was coupled with an umbilical cord that was not functioning properly, due to the high blood pressure. The Doppler scan showed that the cord was supplying a reduced flow of nutrients and oxygenated blood to the baby and at some stages the flow was reversed and was actually taking from the baby. The decision was made, the baby had to be delivered or it would certainly die within a day or two, and Michelle might go the same way if the problem was not resolved.

Michelle was taken to a room in the delivery suite and made as comfortable as possible. A steady stream of midwives and doctors came to see her to monitor her blood pressure and the heart rythym of the baby within her. While this was going on, various other doctors and midwives came to prepare her for what would happen the following day and brief her on the procedures. She was also given steroid injections to help mature the baby's lungs in preparation for the delivery and both of the injections were very painful for her.

Lenore, Michelle's sister came with an overnight bag packed full of the things that Michelle needed immediately and after staying to try to calm Michelle's nerves she left for home and more bag packing so that Michelle would have all the things she would have all the things she would need for a stay in hospital lasting a few days.

The staff went to great lengths to explain to us that our baby was not happy in the womb and the best chance it had for survival was to be delivered and that they would do everything they could for it. They hid nothing from us, our baby would be very small and many small babies do not survive the first few hours. A doctor came to see us from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to explain to us what their role in the baby's care would be, and to invite us up to see their ward. She was very helpful and came across as very competent and dedicated. When she was pushed she said that the baby, as it looked to her, had around a 40% chance of survival, with major complications, such as chronic lung disease, brain damage and the like.

At any other time this news would have probably come as a huge blow, but with everything that had happened in the last 36 hours we were in such a state of shock and tiredness already that the enormity of what the doctor was telling us didn't really sink in. We heard the words and understood what they meant, but it didn't affect us in the way we would have expected. After an hour or so, we decided that we should make a visit to the intensive care unit to see what kind of environment we could expect our baby to be living in when it was born. When the doors to the unit were opened we were met with a world of machinery and technology we could not hope to understand. In the ward there are around 20 incubators, each with an array of monitors, screens and drips all attached to the baby in the incubator. The staff told us not to worry about the alarms that sounded constantly, but everyone of them sounded serious and seemed to signal the end of the world. The reactions of the staff reassured us a little. Everyone was calm and not at all flustered, there was never any panic. with hindsight it was easy to see why, the staff in the ICU spend all day every day in that enviroment and are able to tell what each alarm means. We didn't know it then but the alarms have adjustable limits and even sound if the monitors are recording are too good. Not every alarm is a bad alarm, and most alarms signal a problem that is easily remidied. An example of this would be the alarm of the ventilator. Every so often the alarm will sound to tell the nurse that there is high pressure in the air of the ventilator, but this is almost always caused by water condensing in the coupling of the exhalation pipe and the moisture trap. The procedure to correct this seems to be to uncouple the trap from the pipe and to shake out the water. They then cancel the alarm and reset it again and all is well.

With our visit to the ICU over we returned to the delivery suite where we made preperations to settle down for the night. Michelle, obviously was in her hospital bed and I, having been given unofficial permission to stay the night, settled as best I could across some chairs of varying heights. Surprisingly Michelle and I had a decent nights sleep and awoke to find the hospital routine had been running for some time, even though it was before 7am.