When I became a mother, the overwhelming love I felt for my children felt like it would crack me wide open. It was a love that seemed too large of an emotion to hold within my body. It flowed out in the form of tears and milk and so many kisses over those first few days and weeks. I remember one evening, sitting on the large exercise ball that stayed in my living room (for the easy bouncing of a fussy baby), holding my baby and sobbing. I had this overwhelming feeling that I wanted to protect him fiercely, and never let anything bad happen to him, ever. I knew that was unrealistic, which made my heart break even more.

Imelda O’Connor was a young mother we were introduced to this week. She was living in a caravan, which was temporary housing. Unbeknownst to Imelda and her husband, Maurice, the caravan left while they were trying to secure more permanent housing. This left them suddenly without a home at all. Imelda immediately worried that their family would be separated and their young son Paul would be placed in foster care. She knew if she presented to the maternity home, or any hospital when in labor, they would realize she didn’t have a home address and might take the baby from her, as well. Imelda made the difficult decision to have her baby with only her husband and toddler present, in the abandoned and condemned building where they had taken shelter in for the night. She was too worried to even call Nurse Nancy for assistance. She thought only of the love she had for her family, and the overpowering need to keep them all together. It was that love, though, that also led her to send Maurice urgently to Nonnatus house to fetch a midwife. Imelda was bleeding heavily, and the baby seemed lethargic and wouldn’t feed. At that moment, Imelda knew that she needed help to save her baby and herself. There were so many unknowns–would Paul be taken? Would Imelda get in trouble for being found in the abandoned building? Would they all be separated, and the baby removed from her care? Imelda loved her family so much that she risked being separated in order to make sure they would all be healthy and safe.

Rosemary Mason was surprised to find herself expecting another child, as her other children were in their teens. While her pregnancy and birth were quite smooth, her postpartum course would be complicated by hepatitis. Hepatitis can be highly contagious through fecal-oral contamination, sexual activity, or IV drug use when sharing needles. Dr. Turner knew he had to try to find out where Rosemary’s case came from, to help contain the spread. Rosemary was a loving mother to all of her children–including one son that her family did not know about. When she was an unmarried teen, she had a baby boy. She placed that baby for adoption, and he later found her. About a year or so after she had her son, she met a man, got married, and had other children. She never forgot her baby boy. His name was Leon, and he found her as he got older. He dealt with quite a bit of trauma from his past, and felt unwanted, abandoned, and unloved by his birth mother. He turned to drugs, and was suffering from addiction. Leon thought that he and Rosemary were reconnecting, but when he didn’t see her for weeks, all of those feelings resurfaced. Little did he know that he was also suffering from hepatitis, and likely passed it on to Rosemary during one of their secret visits. He wasn’t able to contact Rosemary to know she had been in quarantine to prevent the spread of illness.

Rosemary felt an immense amount of guilt surrounding her secret son. I’m sure she felt guilt for placing him for adoption, for him feeling unwanted, and for his addiction that he turned to in order to cope with his trauma. She felt guilty for the beautiful life she had with her husband and other children, while Leon suffered. She probably also felt so guilty for never telling her husband about Leon. After years of secrecy, it was love that prompted Rosemary to tell the truth to everyone. She had so much love for all of her children, Leon included, and she wanted her husband to know about him. She wanted her love for Leon to be out in the open for all of the world to see.

As parents, we often have to make difficult decisions out of love for our families. They can range from things as mundane as choosing to vaccinate our children even though it involves pain with an injection, which is hard to explain to a toddler or young child. We sacrifice frivolous spending to save money for our children's futures, and some parents even give up their own food in order to ensure their child doesn’t go hungry. Imelda had to give up her strongest wish, that her family would stay together, in order to benefit them in the long run. This temporary separation would allow her husband time to find work to provide a steady income, and would ensure that little Paul would have a safe place to be, with a warm bed and food, until she was able to be with him. Rosemary placed her baby for adoption when she was an unmarried teen mother. She thought that another family might be able to provide for him in ways that she could not. She never forgot him, not for one single day. She was overjoyed to find him again, although filled with sorrow that he was so deeply entrenched in his addiction. I’m sure she even felt some responsibility for his condition. Although she had made all decisions out of her love for him, sometimes we cannot predict what future consequences might arise from that choice. We all make the best decisions we can with the information we have at the time, using our love to drive us forward.