“If the babies didn’t come out at the same place, I’d be all at sea!”
It could be said that Dorothy’s rather amusing comment sums up the huge changes in the practice of midwifery that swept across the mid-twentieth century, in everything from hygiene measures to administrative processes. Being a midwife in this period was incredibly demanding, with midwives often straddling between two eras: that of quaint home births, and that of medicalised births in hospital. This blog will be looking at some of the oral histories in the ‘Medicine in Worcester’ collection, and reflecting on the challenges, pressures and pleasures of the midwifery profession during this period.
It is no surprise that midwives worked long hours, as a midwife remembers during her training at the Ronkswood branch of Worcester Royal Infirmary in the 1950s:
“I’ve known a sister, a patient came in about five o’clock, wouldn’t think of going off duty, she would stay on seven, half past seven, make quite sure that that patient was well cared for, and had been um admitted and comfortable before she went up for her supper. We couldn’t expect that today. ”
The work itself certainly did not suit the squeamish, as Ethel (Molly) Stephens discovered. Molly remembers working with a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist during her training at Worcester Royal Infirmary in the 1930s. The consultant was conducting an intimate patient examination, which rather shocked Molly:
“[The consultant] said “I shall want screens” […] when I saw what he was doing the intimate examination, I was horrified, I’d no idea such things went on, and this is how we went round the ward, and every four or five minutes I kept saying to him “I’ve got to make that bed up!” so after he got to the ward door, he said “we’ve done splendidly Sister, now you may make the bed up you’ve got plenty of time, you see I am doing the operation!”
Huge responsibility was placed on midwives, both in hospital and at patients’ homes. At the young age of 26, Dorothy A. Higgins was put in charge of a maternity unit at Shrub Hill. She had to carry babies and patients up and down stone steps:
“There was a delivery room [on the ground floor] in case you had someone who couldn’t get up the stairs! […] And, we had canvas stretchers and we use to have to carry them up and down these stone steps. It was hard work – you had to be tough!”
Additionally, only a midwife would be present during home births (which were often encouraged during the twentieth century – see my previous blog here for more information). If there was a serious problem, a doctor would be called (this was often done from a far-away phone booth if the home did not have a telephone installed!). Yet, doctors often took a long time to arrive meaning that the midwife had to deal with a lot by themselves. Helen Shirley Brice gave birth to her fourth child at home in Worcester in the mid-1960s and her midwife was only recently qualified. The midwife had to deal with a haemorrhage all by herself until a doctor arrived several hours later!
“I had a haemorrhage, and of course she said to me “you’ve got a haemorrhage” so I said “well what you going to do about it?” well she said “I’ll give you a couple of injections” and she said “we’re now at four o’clock” four o’clock in the morning, she said “If you lie in bed with your legs tightly crossed and don’t move” she says “I’ll get the doctor to come and see you as soon as he can” and both my husband and I were frightened to death in case my haemorrhage continued flowing, but fortunately the injection she gave me I suppose contracted, stopped that and erm, from what I can remember the doctor didn’t come to turn six o’clock or nearly seven o’clock in the morning”
Occasionally, though it was often discouraged, midwives themselves would become pregnant. Midwife Kate Bradley was pregnant in 1964 whilst working at the Ronkswood branch of Worcester Royal Infirmary, and had to work tough night shifts:
“The, beginning of ’64 I was pregnant, now that was a very, very cold winter […] it seemed to me that practically every night somebody was dying and I used to get home in the morning feeling quite depressed, erm. I was on, I went on to general night duty then because I couldn’t stand at the table a lot, because I was what six months pregnant then, five, six months ”
We now return to Dorothy A. Higgins, who comments on all the changes she witnessed in her medical career. Dorothy took her initial midwifery training in the 1940s and 22 years later took a refresher course, in which all the changes in midwifery were made clear:
“Disposables. I can remember the little sister who was on the postnatal ward I was working on, and I went up to her with a catheter, and I said, “Have I really got to throw this away?” Because we used to wash them through and boil them up again, you’d reuse them […] And you were always having to sign for this, and sign for that and you listened to the baby’s heart and signed that you’d seen it […] in the old days, you said “I’m just coming to do your gram let’s see how you’re getting on.” But if you’d done that, you could have been sued for assault, believe it or not”
Despite the pressures that a career in midwifery carried, it remained a very popular field to enter into. For Dorothy, being a midwife allowed her to feel a part of the local Worcester community:
“But, erm – I don’t know there was a – a wonderful feeling there and I still meet people who still call me Sister Walker, although I was married in 1955. “Hello Sister Walker! How are you? Do you remember this?” And, ‘this’ is probably a twenty year old- you know? And, now, I have got- some of my babies have got grandchildren. […] And I err think that’s the joy of living in the same area you work ”
The role of a midwife, therefore, goes far beyond assisting with the delivery of babies. Midwives ensure mother and baby are both physically and emotionally supported all the way from the early stages of pregnancy until the early post-partum stages. Indeed, a 2013 Cochran review concluded that midwifery-led care is associated with reduced risk of miscarriage and a reduction in the use of epidurals, for example. It is wonderful that the value of midwives is being recognised, with student midwives being eligible for additional financial support from September 2020.