Bundles of Joy: Two Thousand Miracles. One Unstoppable Manchester Midwife
The second book from Sunday Times bestselling author Linda Fairley.‘No matter how many babies I deliver, each and every one is a miracle, connecting me to the world like nothing else, reminding me that we are all equal in the beginning, and in the end. It’s a great leveller, childbirth.’It’s January 1972 and times have changed since Linda first stepped onto a maternity ward four years earlier. Gone are the starched skirts and steaming milk kitchens of the 1960s; these are the exhilarating days of disposable equipment and new technology. The Pill will soon be free to all women, and more and more fathers are daring to brave the delivery room.At the newly-opened Ashton maternity unit the midwives’ spirits are high, and, in spite of the dark cloud of laundry strikes on the horizon, there’s the scent of a new era on the cold winter wind.But one thing has stayed the same – the babies keep coming. Year after year, Linda faithfully helps the women of Greater Manchester through their most vulnerable and emotional hours, whether it is by giving calm instructions over the phone to a panicking husband, delivering a baby unexpectedly in a hospital lift, or by dashing headlong to the rescue of a snowed-in mum-to-be.As 25-year-old Linda becomes a mother herself she understands, more than ever, what a precious gift it is to bring children into the world, and she holds each new baby just that little bit tighter. As the years roll by Linda finds herself delivering the babies of mothers and fathers she helped to bring into the world decades earlier – making her something of a local celebrity.Through the highs and lows, through the modernisations that transform the hospital and the world outside, Linda’s passion for midwifery burns as bright as ever. With 42 years of experience Linda is one of Britain’s longest-serving midwives, and reaching the retirement age in 2008 didn’t stop her doing the job she loves.Although she has seen generations of women give birth and delivered more than 2,000 babies, she treats every new arrival like the new miracle it is.
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This book is a work of non-fiction based on the author’s experiences. In order to protect privacy, names, identifying characteristics, dialogue and details have been changed or reconstructed.
HarperElement
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and HarperElement are trademarks of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
First published by HarperElement 2012
FIRST EDITION
© Linda Fairley with Rachel Murphy 2012
All images and material © the author, except where stated. Associated Press extract and Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust article reproduced with permission.
While every effort has been made to trace the owners of the material produced herein and secure permission to use it, the publishers would like to apologise for any omissions and will be pleased to incorporate missing acknowledgements in any future edition of this book.
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Linda Fairley asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN 9780007457144
Ebook Edition © October 2012 ISBN: 9780007457151 Version 2016-10-21
The Midwife’s Here!
For Peter,
who told me I could do this.
He would be very proud.
Contents
Copyright
Chapter One
‘I’d love to hear some good news’
Chapter Two
‘Please God, look after Mrs Sully this time’
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
‘I think I’ve eaten far too much turkey’
Chapter Five
‘Help me! I’m boiling me ’ead off!’
Chapter Six
‘Mind if I have a ciggie, only I’m really nervous?’
Chapter Seven
‘What an impatient little boy you are!’
Chapter Eight
‘Oh Christ, the head is coming out!’
Chapter Nine
‘The bigger the medallion, the harder they fall’
Chapter Ten
‘I haven’t felt the baby move’
Chapter Eleven
‘I was hoping to apply for a community post’
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
‘Honestly, you could have been killed!’
Chapter Fourteen
‘Linda, I’ve got some terrible news’
Chapter Fifteen
‘It wasn’t how I’d envisaged the birth at all!’
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue
Picture Section
Acknowledgements
‘Go, and do thou likewise.’
‘She’s on the bathroom floor!’ Sarah’s husband puffed as he flung open the front door and ushered me inside the house. ‘Come in,’ he said urgently, giving me a grateful smile. ‘You must be frozen.’ Turning his head towards the stairs, he shouted up to his wife, ‘The midwife’s here! Love, the midwife’s here!’
Robin Heywood then turned on his heel and charged upstairs. I hastily pulled off my Wellington boots and winter coat and followed him, dripping water all over the carpet as I did so.
It was just before Christmas 2002 and I’d driven and trudged through deep snow to get here. Sarah Heywood hadn’t planned a home birth and when her waters broke her husband had called an ambulance in the hope they could make it to Tameside Hospital, where she was booked in to have her baby.
Snow was already thick on the ground and still falling fast when I received the call at my home in Mottram, asking me to head up to their house in the Glossop hills, some three miles away. In situations like this it’s standard practice to send an ambulance as well as two community midwives, in case it’s too late to get the patient to hospital. One of my colleagues would also have had a call to provide me with back-up, though she was not here yet.
It was past 10 p.m. when my phone rang in my sitting room. I wasn’t actually on duty, but as I drove a 4 x 4 and lived closest, I agreed to help. I must admit I wasn’t entirely thrilled about this. My husband Peter and I were watching television and I had been feeling very cosy, cuddled up on the settee, drinking hot tea and warming my toes in front of the fire. We’d spent the evening wrapping presents and I’d baked a batch of mince pies, which filled our home with a wonderful festive smell.
‘What a night to be called out,’ I grumbled as I went to get changed into my uniform.
‘Well, you won’t be complaining about wearing trousers on a night like this, that’s for sure,’ Peter commented as he looked out at the wintry night.
He was right. In these conditions the only saving grace, if you could call it that, was that I no longer had to wear a dress to work. My NHS uniform had changed in 2000 to navy trousers and a matching cotton tunic, which I wasn’t sure about at first. I remember that, not long before trousers came in, I’d been called out very urgently to a delivery, and for the first time ever I’d rushed out in my own clothes to save time changing. I found this was a big mistake. Even though the delivery went very well, I just didn’t feel right at all.
