her hands on the moon

her hands on the moon

belly, Ibu Robin feels

the stir of new life

Another day in the life of an American midwife in Bali. Ibu Robin is examining a young ex-pat American woman, her sensitive hands picking up the baby's position in the uterus. The young woman's mother has talked her into keeping her baby away from the Balinese father because she would lose legal rights over the child. The pregnant girl is scared to have the baby because it's "yucky, messy" and the baby is "too big" to come out. She's also afraid that she would end up ignoring her older child, like her mom did after having two babies at 16 and 18 and their father dying of an overdose. Ibu Robin reassures her that the baby is not too big and she'll be a fine mother.