Dr. Vincent gives the girls a brief, dismissive talk about labor, insisting childbirth is “none of your business” and that modern medicine prevents real suffering if they obey doctors and Nurse Kent. When Tansy asks how they will know labor is starting, Nurse Kent only repeats, “You’ll know,” leaving Fern uneasy even after Diane claims women are simply drugged and wake up with babies.

In the Cong, Flora explains the “two-week warning” routine: pack a bag from Hagar, leave it by the door, and when labor starts, Nurse Kent sends someone for the bag while Miss Wellwood drives the girl to the hospital. The conversation derails when Myrtle storms in furious that someone stole her hidden “DS” (food stash); Rose’s remark that “Property is theft” is taken as a confession and nearly sparks a fight until Rose retreats behind a performance of forgiveness.

Later, Rose returns enraged that someone stole her cigarettes and Zippo, and Ginger throws Rose’s “property is theft” line back at her. The room laughs Rose out of the Cong, and Fern, wanting to avoid both Rose and the other girls, slips outside to the Smoke Shack. There, Fern discovers Holly has been stealing candy and realizes Holly took Myrtle’s DS; Fern joins Holly, then offers Rose’s stolen cigarettes and lighter as trade goods, cementing a quiet alliance between the two girls.

That night, Fern goes to the bathroom and finds a trail and pool of blood leading to a stall. Inside, Myrtle is in catastrophic labor—bleeding heavily, covered in gore, and panicked—contradicting everything the staff promised about painless, controlled childbirth. Fern, overwhelmed, screams and urinates on herself as Nurse Kent rushes in; an ambulance arrives and Myrtle is taken away, still screaming.

The next morning, Miss Wellwood shuts down questions and reframes the event as Myrtle’s fault for disobedience and poor diet, announcing Myrtle will stay in the hospital until her parents arrive and will not return to Wellwood House. Fern, haunted by what she saw, realizes the adults have lied at every level and that the girls have no protection except each other and their babies—yet even that bond will be severed when the babies are taken.