The corridor outside the medical bay was a blinding contrast to the clinical white room—a long, shadowed passage, dimly lit by a single, failing emergency light that cast the peeling plaster walls in sickly, shifting hues of red and gray. I crawled, dragging my heavy body across the marble floor, the cold seeping through my thin gown, a constant, brutal reminder of my vulnerability.

The pain of the contractions was immense now, a crushing, tightening vice that forced small, involuntary moans ...