Amit Montague

Amit Montague is the physician who treats Clare during her pregnancies and oversees the birth of Alba. Her role is especially important as Clare and Henry confront repeated pregnancy loss and the risks of carrying a child: Montague provides medication, monitors the pregnancy, and supports Clare through labor, while her clinical presence gives Henry and Clare practical care in a period shaped by uncertainty.

Medical care amid uncertainty

Clare and Henry’s decision to try to have a child comes with fears they do not fully discuss. Clare knows Henry is pessimistic about their chances, but she avoids asking whether he has seen their future without a baby or whether his time-travel condition might be hereditary. The possibility of medical and genetic risk shadows their desire for a child before Montague’s treatment becomes part of their lives.

After an earlier pregnancy loss, Clare describes feeling cut off from the world around her. Henry tells Amit that he believes the baby has died, but she points to the heartbeat and insists that the pregnancy continues. The exchange establishes the gap between Clare’s despair and the clinical evidence Montague can offer; it also shows that treatment does not simply end the emotional consequences of loss. Clare remains isolated and distressed even as the baby is still alive.

Treatment and pregnancy

During a later pregnancy, Montague gives Clare medication used for organ-transplant patients. Clare reports that Montague explains the nausea as a sign that her body is recognizing the baby as part of herself rather than as a foreign body. The treatment is part of an effort to sustain the pregnancy, not a guarantee that it will proceed safely.

Clare and Henry have both needed blood transfusions, and they are attentive to the possibility that she may need more blood during pregnancy. When Henry proposes banking additional blood, Clare agrees. This practical precaution reflects the couple’s experience of serious medical vulnerability and the care they take to prepare for complications.

At eighteen weeks, Clare and Henry attend an ultrasound at Montague’s office. They have declined amniocentesis because they fear that an invasive test could cause them to lose the baby. The examination brings together hope and apprehension: they are eager to see the pregnancy, but the clinic also recalls the anxiety and bad news they have encountered there before. On this visit, however, they believe the examination will be reassuring.

Labor and the birth of Alba

Montague is present when Clare’s labor becomes intense. As Clare’s distress grows, Montague examines her and reports that she is six centimeters dilated. When Clare agrees to an epidural, staff enter with medical equipment, and Montague continues to assess her condition and the fetal monitor.

The monitor shows that the baby’s heartbeat is very fast. Montague tells Clare that the baby is frightened and urges her to stay calm, linking the mother’s emotional state to the baby’s. She also reassures Clare that the situation is improving, encouraging her to imagine the pain as something that can be set aside while she and the baby remain present. Her words help orient Clare during a moment when the medical signals have become alarming.

Montague asks Henry to speak to the baby and sing to her. Clare addresses the child as Alba and asks Henry to recite a poem. In this scene, Montague’s care includes directing the parents’ attention toward the baby and helping them participate in calming her, alongside the clinical monitoring and pain relief. The evidence presents her as a physician who combines medical intervention with direct, personal reassurance at a critical point in labor.

Narrative role

Montague’s appearances mark the intersection of reproductive hope and medical uncertainty in Clare and Henry’s family life. She is associated not with a simple resolution but with ongoing decisions, treatment, monitoring, and preparation for risk. The pregnancies require the couple to act without certainty about the outcome, and Montague’s care gives them medical support without erasing the fear that has accumulated through earlier losses.

Her role becomes most concentrated in the labor scene: an accelerated fetal heartbeat makes the danger tangible, while her calm instructions and involvement of Henry offer the parents something immediate to do. Through Montague, clinical care and family attachment meet in the same room, as the effort to protect Alba depends on both medical attention and the parents’ presence.