Midwife?
The request:
Author’s Notes | I don’t really believe Ivar would know what to do, but I think it’s funny to have a man of that times narrating such an unknown moment for them!
Universe | Vikings
Pairing | Ivar x Reader
Info | Viking Age AU, requested by @sallydelys for 5CW7
Words | 1992
⁑ Warnings: Mentions of blood, graphic description of labor and childbirth. Keep in mind that this document may contain clinical/medical mistakes.
Middle Winter.
How the hell did I come up to get my wife heavily pregnant right in the middle of the Winter?
Y/N was swollen like a balloon, ready to pop. And I was nervous as fuck with the proximity of that event. Our firstborn child.
Something I never thought could be possible.
"Where is daddy?"
Shit.
I had called Floki through a slave that left what... three hours before the snow started falling outside again? I could bet Floki wouldn't come and I would have one less slave in my house cause that girl would end up frozen outside my house. Damn snow!
"He was supposed to be here already, love, but the snow started falling outside again. I think we may have to wait a little longer."
"I want my dad..." she cried.
Shit. Again.
Y/N was my everything. My queen, the love of my life, my first, my one, and only. But fuck... Since she got pregnant, she was completely changed, every day acting with a different mood... She was driving me crazy!
Mom told me it was the pregnancy, that I should be patient. But things sometimes would run out of my control and we would fight for hours! Just to end up with her tightly embraced on me, saying she could never live without me as much as I couldn't imagine my life without my Y/N.
Things didn't get better with the Winter arriving and her final months making her less able to move around. She wanted to walk, to go out, but the midwife told her to stay more inside the house since she started feeling dizzy once again. There was built the battlefield: she even tried to sneak out of my sight once! Imagine how good it was to have to bring my wife back home, crying because she wasn't able to reach the central square and almost fell in the middle of the way.
Since then, we thought it would be safer to be with her at Floki's cabin. Floki could help me to take a look at her, Helga could help me to keep her entertained. Their slaves could do everything for us and she would be safe when the time to give birth has come. Perfect!
If Bjorn didn't have decided to ask for a bunch of boats in the middle of the fucking Winter.
I would castrate my brother if I could! Why the fucking damn heck did Björn wanted to navigate the gods' damn sea in the middle of the freezing Winter? Couldn't he fucking wait my wife to give birth before taking Floki out of our cabin right in the day Helga said she finished my mother's dress and had to leave too?
Now we were completely alone and my little precious balloon was sadly mourning around because somehow, she wasn't feeling well and wanted her father exactly when he couldn't be there for her.
"Babe, you shouldn't be out of the bed," I complained, walking towards her when she sprouted at the living room's door, in her nightgown, walking slow like a little swollen duck.
My charming swollen duck I loved so badly.
"But Ivar... I'm not feeling well. I don't wanna stay in bed. The baby's feet are on my ribs and I can't breathe," she complained when I slowly started guiding her into our room once again.
"I know. So, we can walk a little through our room ok? Come," I insisted, ready to open the door when she held herself on the wall, pressing my shoulder with the other hand and moaning in a tone I didn't want to hear in a million years.
Her body bent forward and she let go of the wall to touch her belly.
She was in pain...
Her eyes, full of fear found mine, full of affliction.
And then, that happened.
A small moment of silence before a wet sound denounced the water flowing in the middle of her legs, making a poll around her feet.
"Ivar..." she mumbled.
"Fuck!" I answered.
Right before she bent once again, this time, growling in pain.
"Fuck!!" I cursed again, trying to guide her with me to the bed.
Cursing my legs for not being able to lift her into my arms.
Cursing the snow for not being able to go out for a midwife.
Cursing Floki for leaving with Helga.
My mom for ordering that stupid dress. Björn for wanting his stupid boats!
May Thor smite them down into the ocean!
"Ivar... It hurts! It hurts so bad!" she cried when we finally reached the bed to lay her down.
Fuck! I was the younger of my brothers! Ubbe had seen my mother giving birth to three after him! Hvitserk? Two. Even Sigurd would be able to do something if he wasn't so young when I was born! But what did I know about birth and labors?
Shit! I knew shit about it! I slid my hands through my hair looking at her. And Y/N noticed I was completely lost.
"You need... To boil water... And you need to bring the towels that are at my mother's locker. Be careful when you get the towels wet into the water. It will help me with the pain and... you with the... blood!" she growled the last word, bending forward again.
And I almost could see her big belly contracting.
Blood? Blood.
Blood... Yeah. I remember Ubbe saying my birth was full of that shit and that he was scared of seeing the maid coming in with towels and out with red clothes dip in our mother's blood.
I wasn't ready for that shit!
I wasn't raised for that shit!
Fuck Björn's boats! A thousand times!
I sat down, getting rid of my braces - dragging I would be quicker and it wasn't time to be prideful. I then went to the heart of fire, placing a big pan I found at the kitchen over the fire and bringing water into it until it was full.
I could hear Y/N grunting inside the room, trying to breathe. And I then looked outside, seeing the snow becoming higher.
"Damn... Damn! Why the fuck are you doing this to me?" I asked the gods, lowering my head for a moment. "Frigg... Mother... I beg you, guide my hands. And for the gods' sake, end this damn storm!"
The water took some time to get hot enough so I could bring a pot to the room with the towels, leaving the bigger pan with more water to boil at the fire.
When I came into the room, Y/N was sitting in the bed, her back supported by the pillows, her knees flexed as she was breathing quickly, short.
"What do I do now?" I asked, looking at her.
About to panic at the sight of the big poll of blood that had been formed in the middle of her legs and that I was able to see as soon as I got up to the bed.
"Calm down, Ivar," she grunted, looking at me. "I'll bleed. This... This is supposed to happen. Gimme a warm towel," she asked.
And I did what she said, seeing when she placed it over her belly.
"I want you to place another in the middle of my legs, over the bed, ignore the blood, Ivar... Just... Place it over it."
Again, I did what she said, confused.
"Ivar," she called, causing me to look at her. "I want you to stay where you are. And when our child comes... You'll hold it, did you hear me?"
H... Hold it?
"You mean..." I moved my hands, looking at her.
"Take off your... gloves!" Another word grunted and I saw her pushing as something started showing up in her entrance.
And for a moment I was totally taken by that vision at the same time magic and bizarre, intense and terrifying.
My child would be born... And I would be the first one to hold it into this world.
That mix of feelings took me as I was removing my gloves, washing my hands on the water to get them clean.
What I was doing was more than I ever thought I was able to do. But what she was doing there, facing all that pain to bring my dream into this world...
What were all the fights we had?
What was the anger we had against each other?
What was everything in the face of all that love?
I raised my face to look at her. My sweaty, tired, and panting wife, putting all her efforts on pushing our child out of her belly, into this world. Her whole strength, focused only on making my dream become reality.
If she was strong enough to face all that pain for me, then I could face my fears for her.
"It's coming!" she warned, and I approached as she started pushing one more time, allowing me to support our child's head, watching as its whole body slowly came out from her body entirely, finally permitting her to sigh in relief as a strange bag of blood and meat came out as well, connected to our child by the cord.
"Oh, gods..." she cursed, relaxing in bed. "What is it, Ivar? How is my child?" she questioned.
But I was too wondered, astonished, looking at the baby moving in my hands, bothered by the air, by the temperature, by the mere sound of my breath - all new things he wasn't prepared for yet.
"Ivar?" She called, worried.
The fear growing in her voice again just to die completey when her eyes found my image, hands bathed in her blood I was now completely able to ignore, holding our child over that wet and warm towel we placed under her legs.
"It's a boy," I muttered, teary.
And our voices seemed to bother him even more because my son's forehead frowned and his voice could be heard a quarter further away from that house in such a strong cry I could never describe with my own words.
It was alive, full of strength, experimenting life for the first time...
In my hands.
I giggled, completely taken by that experience as Y/N showed me how to cut the cord, clean our baby with the towel, gently packing him in a dry towel so she could bring him against her chest, offering him the breast he accepted in goodwill, hungrily suckling from her.
I watched that scene in awe.
It was Frigg herself, with Baldr in her arms. My own goddess with our child against her chest, the product of her womb, the fruit of our love.
"We've heard the cry of a... Oh, gods... It's here, Floki!" I've heard Helga's voice and I knew she arrived at the bedroom's door such as Floki also arrived, too late to help. Soon enough to see the same wonder I was watching now.
I felt his heavy hand landing on my shoulder, but I didn't want to take my eyes from my beautiful Y/N with our son in her arms, to look at his teary eyes.
"Welcome to the boat of the ones who have already seen the gods, son," he mumbled, giggling that characteristic way of his to laugh.
But I smiled bigger, looking at Y/N who smiled back at me.
She was sweaty, covered in blood, and tired. But I was sure I would never see a woman more beautiful in the whole Miðgarðr.
"No, my friend... I didn't see the gods. A goddess lays in my bed every night. And she produced life as a gift to me."
Floki giggled again. I was speaking of his daughter after all.
But at that moment, all I could think was that if being whole was the best thing in this world, it should feel exactly like the feeling I had in my chest by looking at Y/N.
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