Loveday Writing

Meanwhile, Sasha is helping an overbearing client, Beatrice, in labour at the Birthing Centre and Laney is conducting an exercise ball yoga class, which has Jim and Bonnie in attendance, as well as Christina, Paul’s wife. Laney tells Grace about her interaction with Christina during the class, and it’s clear Christina knows Laney is having an affair with Paul. Grace asks Laney what she’s going to do. Laney ends up confronting Paul about it, only to end up all but spilling the beans about their affair to a couple of his colleagues. When Grace points out to her that the affair wasn’t going to last forever and that’s why she entered into it in the first place, Laney admits she thought it would last. Sasha then bursts into the bathroom begging for Grace’s and Laney’s help with Beatrice.

When Grace examines Beatrice, it’s revealed that Sasha mistakenly measured Beatrice’s cervix as being fully dilated. Laney gestures Sasha to leave the room where she gently gets Sasha to admit her mistake and realise what she can learn from it.  When Grace comes out, she tells Laney that she’ll get an obstetrician to reassure Beatrice, this is when both Grace and Laney spot Diane and Dr. Sebastian arriving at the Centre.

Grace asks Dr. Sebastian to see Beatrice. After he leaves Diane’s side, Grace asks Diane why she has showed up. Grace tells Diane about the adoption counselling session. Later, Grace asks Laney to cover for her while she is at the counselling session.

During the counselling session, Sophia admits that she doesn’t want to raise a child and tells the counsellor that Kirk didn’t leave the house for months after her mother died, which he denies. She also admits to missing her mother and moments later, the counsellor is called away on an urgent call. When the counsellor leaves, Kirk asks Sophia why she won’t tell him who the father is and she says he has nothing to do with it. Sophia also asks Grace whether she regrets putting her up for adoption and what Diane thought about her decision. Grace tells her that Diane was someone she felt she couldn’t go to about it. Sophia then asks Grace why she didn’t choose an open adoption, Grace answers that she didn’t feel it was fair on everyone and thought that her (adoptive) parents should be her parents. Sophia tells them that Eady is her baby and it’s her life they are talking about it, and walks out.

After Grace leaves the session, Eliza arrives at the Centre in labour. As Eliza is giving birth, she asks Max if he is single and he says it’s complicated. When Eliza and Grace ask for more details, he reveals he “has a son with his sister” – his sister is a lesbian, and she and her partner wanted a baby that had the same genes, so his sister’s partner carried the baby. When Grace asks Max what his son’s name is, he reveals it’s Jonah, and that he is more of an uncle as opposed to a father to him. Lily goes on to have a baby girl.

Meanwhile, Sophia goes to see Diane, asking why Grace gave her up for adoption but Diane doesn’t give her an answer. When Grace sees them outside the Centre, she asks Diane what she’s doing, but Diane informs Grace that Sophia came to see her. Grace then calls Kirk, inviting him and Sophia to dinner to try and deal with the adoption. While Grace is on the phone, she is paged and informs Max that Lily has gone into labour.

As Grace and Max leave the Birthing Centre, Paul comes to see Laney. Laney tells Paul that Christina knows about the affair and Laney is his mistress. Laney tells him that Christina needs him.

Meanwhile, Sasha goes to check on Beatrice and finds her unconscious. Sasha gets Laney and Dr Sebastian’s help, and Beatrice gives birth with Sasha holding her hand.  Afterwards Sasha confides in Laney that she doesn’t think she’s suited to be a midwife and is an awe of her and Grace. Laney admits that she gets feels overwhelmed in some births as well, and tells her that she’s a great midwife.

Meanwhile as they are attending to Lily’s homebirth, Max and Grace juggle babysitting Lily’s other children, as well as Max walking in on Lily’s husband masturbating in the bathroom as he is looking for towels. When Sophia calls Grace about abandoning the dinner plans, Sophia isn’t happy but Kirk takes the news in stride.

Later that evening, Diane tells Dr. Sebastian about meeting Sophia and confides in him about the difficulty she feels in connecting with Grace. Meanwhile, as they are soaking their feet in Lily’s pool, Max asks Grace if Sophia was a homebirth and she tells him she had her in a birthing centre. Max tells Grace that he joined the army as he didn’t know what to do with his life, she asks him if he regrets it and he says no. Lily ends up giving birth to a boy, while her daughter, Juno, comforts her in the final moments.

The next morning, Grace gets a phone call from Laney on her way home. Laney tells Grace that she wants to have a baby of her own. The episode ends with Grace walking through her front door and finding Kirk comforting Eady in the kitchen while Sophia is still sleeping. Grace holds Eady while Kirk makes them cups of coffee.

Overall I felt that this was a solid episode, mainly due to the focus on character development rather than the adoption story arc. This episode had us see Grace and Max in their stride in different environments, with the focus on homebirths. The episode also provided further insight into Laney with her discomfort of discovering Christina’s pregnancy and deciding she wants to have a baby herself, as well as insight into Sasha when she doubted her abilities during Beatrice’s birth. While the adoption story arc only took a step forward with the counselling session, we did see the dynamic between Grace and Kirk develop with Grace’s dinner invitation, and Kirk looking after her and Eady. I also found myself surprised about the reveal of Max’s family dynamic when it comes to his son, and the fact that the woman Laney saw Max with in last week’s episode was either his sister or his sister’s partner.

Stray Observations:

Running gag: Grace answering her phone in the car, putting it on speaker, and Max finding out secrets about Grace and Laney.

-According to Grace, Laney’s hair smells like apples.

-Sophia’s adopted mother died of leukaemia two years ago, according to Sophia the leukaemia progressed rapidly.

-Grace walked in on a snake out of its tank at one homebirth.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “I brought the peas, they’re still pretty cold.” (Eliza to Grace and Max on her choice to have frozen peas on her baby belly to help with labour)
• “If I poo, will you tell me? Actually please don’t. Are you single?” “That was a terrible segue!” (Eliza-Max while she is having contractions)
• “My boyfriend shot through, I’m not expecting him back in case you’re worried about it.” (Eliza to Max)
• “Goldilocks and the…Three Dinosaurs, what happened to the Three Bears?” (Max to Lily’s children on finding one of their bedtime story books)