Three weeks was not a long time.
At least that was what Aira kept telling herself.
Three weeks was nothing in the grand scale of things. Projects she worked on lasted years. Research trials stretched even longer. People rebuilt entire lives in less time than that.
So three weeks shouldn’t matter.
And yet it did.
The afternoon sun poured through the tall windows of the research center in Oakland, casting long rectangles of light across the conference table. Aira stood at the head of it, one hand resting lightly on her laptop as she spoke, the soft click of slides changing every few seconds.
“…and if we extend follow-up visits beyond the standard six weeks, we’ll catch nearly thirty percent more postpartum complications,” she explained. “Especially in communities where access to care i
