Back to the 60s: The Struggle Career of a Charmed Wife
Chapter 263 - 0263: Giving Birth in the Countryside 3_1

Chapter 263: Chapter 0263: Giving Birth in the Countryside 3_1

I’m not sure if it’s because there’s less to do in winter, people are hibernating, and young couples have more energy, so many children are born around August or September.

Here, August and September refer to the lunar calendar.

Just two days after Niu Xiuying gave birth, Damao from the same production team came to see Feng Qingxue, saying that his wife is about to give birth. By the time Qingxue got to their house, Sanmao, who lived two houses away from Damao, also came over to tell her his wife was in labor.

Just like that, two sisters-in-law went into labor on the same day without a warning.

Feng Qingxue assessed the condition of Damao’s wife. For now, her labor wasn’t progressing much. She was still able to chat and laugh. According to Qingxue’s estimate, it would take at least half a day for the birth canal to fully open. She asked Damao to prepare some food to bolster her energy and heat some water. Qingxue then crossed the two intervening households to Sanmao’s house. Sanmao’s wife, however, couldn’t wait any longer, so Qingxue assisted her first.

Half an hour later, Sanmao’s wife gave birth to a daughter, which caused Damao’s mother’s face to darken.

Looking closer, the baby girl’s umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice, her little face was purple due to asphyxiation. Damao’s mother sighed, "Since she’s not breathing, just throw her away. It’s a waste of the eggs I’ve been consuming for ten months."

Sanmao’s wife burst into tears.

"This is a life. Leaders say that women can hold up half the sky, we shouldn’t favor boys over girls!" Feng Qingxue glared at them, quickly took the baby girl and after expending much effort managed to revive her. The umbilical cord was not wrapped too tightly, and the baby’s heartbeat had been strong during the prenatal check, so there had been a chance to save her. If the umbilical cord was wrapped one more round or if the baby’s heartbeat had been weak, it would have been difficult to save her.

Sanmao and his wife were tearfully grateful, cradling their crying daughter, while Damao’s mother huffed off to check on her daughter-in-law.

Just after the situation was handled here, Damao’s wife showed no signs of giving birth. Feng Qingxue stayed with her until the evening when her birth canal finally dilated ten fingers wide, smoothly giving birth to a son. This was her fifth child, with two of her previous four children passed away.

Seeing her grandson, Damao’s mother immediately beamed with joy and insisted on giving Feng Qingxue a large bowl of hot white flour food as a thank you gift.

Having delivered three babies in the span of three days, Feng Qingxue had swiftly garnered a reputation. During work, many people volunteered to help her finish her tasks.

After picking off the corn, it wasn’t quite done, they had to quickly sow the cleared field with wheat, regardless of whether the corn was dried or not, all the kernels had to be stripped off.

Drying corn kernels was much easier and faster than drying the whole cob.

Without a threshing machine, how does one remove the grain?

Fully dependent on manual labor.

Feng Qingxue sat on the field, working in groups of three or five just like everyone else, flanked by a pile of corn cobs. First, they would use a sharp chopstick to drill a line from the bottom up through the corn cob, one line for two rows of grains. This line was where the kernels would detach from the cob. From here, the kernels could be easily rubbed off.

Some people used their bare hands, some the soles of their shoes, some people rubbed the stripped corn cob against the drilled cob. Yellow corn kernels fell like a stream of water, in the end, all was left was a bare corn cob.

Summer sweets were smoothly put back into the cellar, the able-bodied went to sow wheat, leaving the old, weak, women, and children to shell the corn.

Many people sat on the ground, only Qingxue sat on a stool to avoid putting pressure on her abdomen. When others saw her sitting like this, what else was there to not understand? The walking and sitting postures of pregnant and non-pregnant women are different, experienced women would know at a glance.

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Getting up at four or five to write, o(╥﹏╥)o I’ll go eat first, then go to the hospital, if I go early around eight I can evade the crowd. If I’m lucky, I can be back in an hour, then I’ll continue writing and updating.