"You don't have to scream so loud," Wind Bends Grass said abruptly. "It doesn't hurt that much."
Redbird wished her mother could feel this pain and know how much it hurt. She felt like telling Wind Bends Grass to leave the birthing wickiup.
Sun Woman said gently, "No one knows how much another person hurts."
I don't remember this much pain when Eagle Feather was born. Maybe I am going to die.
Sun Woman stood up and wiped Redbird's forehead with a cool, wet kerchief, then cleaned her bottom for her, where a little blood was dripping.
"I can see the top of the baby's head," Sun Woman said. "It will be a good birth. You are almost done now."
Redbird looked up at the mare's tail, dyed red, that hung over the wickiup doorway, medicine to make the birth go easier.
Let it be over soon, she prayed. Her pains had started at dawn, and now it was past midday. Sun Woman had used up four candles, and in the whole band there were hardly any candles left. It had not taken this long with Eagle Feather.
Yellow Hair rubbed the arm she was holding, and Redbird managed to look at her and smile. Though Redbird had meant to honor Yellow Hair by asking her to help here, she was not sure now that she had done the right thing. The pale eyes woman's face was icy white, and she kept biting her lips as if trying to keep from being sick. She had probably never seen anything like this before.
Wind Bends Grass had insisted that it was bad luck to have Yellow Hair present, but Redbird had ignored her.