Linda Fairley - Bundles of Joy - Two Thousand Miracles. One Unstoppable Manchester Midwife

Copyright Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Also by Linda Fairley Dedication Epigraph Prologue Chapter One ‘I’d love to hear some good news’ Chapter Two ‘Please God, look after Mrs Sully this time’ Chapter Three ‘W-w-what did I do wrong?’ 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 ‘Shoo you great oaf!’ 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 ‘Now we have four midwives!’ Epilogue Picture Section Acknowledgements About the Publisher

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

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

and HarperElement are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers 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.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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

ALSO BY LINDA FAIRLEY

The Midwife’s Here!

For Peter,

who told me I could do this.

He would be very proud.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Also by Linda Fairley

Dedication For Peter, who told me I could do this. He would be very proud.

Epigraph ‘Go, and do thou likewise.’

Prologue

Chapter One

‘I’d love to hear some good news’

Chapter Two

‘Please God, look after Mrs Sully this time’

Chapter Three

‘W-w-what did I do wrong?’

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

‘Shoo you great oaf!’

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

‘Now we have four midwives!’

Epilogue

Picture Section

Acknowledgements

About the Publisher

‘Go, and do thou likewise.’

Prologue

‘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.

Without my uniform I didn’t actually feel like ‘Linda the midwife’. I was just Linda, the person I am when I am off duty and, though I’m sure it didn’t show, I felt somehow unprofessional. I vowed never to do that again, but when the modern trouser suit uniform was first unveiled I had my misgivings. It seemed so far removed from the days when I wore long skirts, starched cuffs and stockings and suspenders during my nurse’s training in the 1960s, and I wondered if I would feel suitably attired and ready for action.