“You can roughly compare this situation to when a human mother has a different Rh factor in her blood than her baby.” The doctor paused. “Have you heard of that before?”
Dragos shook his head, but Pia nodded. “I’ve heard of it.”
Dr. Medina looked at her. “Often there’s no problem with the first child a mother has, but during the pregnancy she develops antibodies to carrying the fetus, so there can be complications with the second child. Those can get severe.”
“What are you saying?” Pia asked, gripping Dragos’s hand tightly. “Are you saying I’ve developed antibodies to carrying Dragos’s fetuses?”
“That’s a simple way to put it, but yes, you have,” the doctor replied. “And your symptoms appeared much more quickly and are more extreme.”
“But you said they would be all right,” Dragos said sharply.
“And they will.” Dr. Medina turned to her and said forcefully, “You will. We will make sure of it. There is no reason at all to panic over this. You will do everything you did for Liam’s pregnancy. You will eat right, exercise when you feel good and whenever possible avoid stress. Last night I treated you with spells to dampen your symptoms. I can also develop a drug protocol specifically targeted to suppress your antibodies, so that your body doesn’t reject the baby. We will monitor this pregnancy very closely. That means examinations every two weeks, so that we can make adjustments if necessary.”
Pia tried to calm the shaking in her limbs. “Okay,” she said unsteadily. She tried to smile at Dragos. “We can do that. It’s going to be okay.”
“Yes,” he said simply. “Nothing else is acceptable.”
But Pia could tell—they both felt too much on edge, too close to disaster to really settle, which was why, when Dr. Medina took a deep breath, they turned to her so quickly.
“Now for the not so great news,” Dr. Medina said.
Pia felt her stomach bottom out. She whispered, “I thought that was the not so great news.”
The doctor gave her a kind smile. “That was part of it. The other part is—and there’s no easy way to say this—Pia, this has got to be your last pregnancy. I’m very sorry to tell you this, but if you try to get pregnant a third time, as extreme as your reaction has become, the likelihood is, you’ll miscarry it almost right away. You would almost certainly miscarry with this pregnancy too over the next month or two, if you hadn’t received medical attention—which you have, and you and this baby are just fine. But if you were to try for a third pregnancy, you’ll only put yourself at risk and both you and Dragos through a great deal of heartache. I can help you bring this baby to term, but I can’t help you with another one.”
Pia held herself still, absorbing the news. After a moment, she said, “Is that all of it?”
“Yes, pretty much.”
She bit her lip as she looked from Dr. Medina to Dragos. “I was so sure I wasn’t pregnant, I took a couple of doses of antihistamines yesterday. Is that a problem?”
The doctor shook her head. “Not at all. Some human drugs work well for Wyr, and that happens to be one of them. And since you’re not human, you can enjoy everything that you did when you were pregnant with Liam, including wine and alcohol, since there’s no placental transfer of alcohol for expectant Wyr mothers.”