he Midwife’s Tale relies largely on the voices of the people who were interviewed by authors Nicky Leap and Billie Hunter. In this extract, Esther Silverton describes her first experience of attending a birth on her own as a student midwife during an air raid in the Second World War ...
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My first delivery ‘I was getting to the end of my training in Croydon out on the district. I loved it; I really loved it. … My midwife was called Mrs Treasure and I think she thought I had a little bit of sense. … She used to leave me a lot on my own, anyway. The biggest thrill of my life was when I knew I was going to do my first 20
delivery on my own on the district. ‘Of course, now it wouldn’t be so bad, but it was the times we were living in. You didn’t only have to cope with mum and baby, you had to cope with, well, everything. Keep yourself safe, so that you arrived – I mean, no good you pegging out on the way there, was it! You had to get there. You had to go through the middle of the night with all the flying bombs, on a bike with a cover over your headlamp. It was the blackout. And you wore navy blue, which I thought was dreadful because there were no lights anywhere. You get a very dark night with no moon and there’s nothing anywhere, absolutely pitch black! ‘Well, this particular delivery of
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mine, which was really the highlight of my life, I’ll never forget it. To me it was wonderful. … ‘So that particular night I went to bed all apprehensive. Now, the bed was underneath a Morrison shelter, d’you know? A table shelter – they were sort of iron, you see, dark green and very strong. Down the side there was more metal and then a little bit of strong mesh for air, and then there was a hole where you got underneath and the back was all filled in and then more mesh at the other end. Well, you were supposed to lay two people lengthways in those, but of course where I was w w w. d i s c o v e r y o u r h i s t o r y. n e t
NEW MOTHERS and midwives sheltering together during an air raid.
Social History Midwife’s Tale
The Independent Photography Project
A COUPLE inside a Morrison shelter.
wasn’t big enough so we had to lay widthways – that meant to say our feet were out so we each took a twohour stint of being awake to call the others when the raids come on and you all had to lift your legs in – ’cause we said it would be no good if you got your legs chopped off! Say it would be my stint; you had to sit up to keep awake for two hours. We did this in turn each night.
A call for the midwife ‘Well, this particular night when the phone went, I was asleep and Pam said, “Nurse, the phone’s ringing. I expect it’s for you.” And when I answered the phone it was one of the patients. ‘Well, I had to get all round the back of the house to get me bike out and lock it all up, get meself out, take a bag and that. And I had
to ride alongside of the park and there was a warden and he said, “Get off the bike. They’re falling fast. Listen to them, all coming over!” I said, “Can’t. Maternity case ...” And rode on ever so cocky! I went on and them doodlebugs kept stopping. They’re terrible, when they stop. They swish on down, you see, and then they fall, and of course they shatter roads – a road went like a pack of cards! The devastation! You’d hear them coming, the plane’s noise, and then they stopped – swish – and when they stopped you had to do something because they’d drop anywhere. ‘Many of a time I’ve been near them and you just laid down flat on the road, so I just fell off the bike, laid down – there’s no traffic about but say there had been, they wouldn’t have seen you on a dark night in the middle of the road – they’d have rolled over you. ... ‘Well, I got to this house finally because it was a shocking night, one of the worst they’d had. I got to this house and I moved along, fumbled me way along and found the door and put me bike in the gate, took me lamp off to check it was the right number and I knocked. Nobody came. I was ever so frightened. So I pushed the door and it was open so
A DISTRICT midwife bathing a baby, c1940. Personal collection: Billie Hunter and Nicky Leap
billeted out there was “Mum”, “Dad” and Pam (lovely girl). They were doing an important job and didn’t have to go to war, but her brother and sister had gone out. They were fighting. ‘So there was four of us, you see, so what could we do? So we decided that as we had a great big huge table in that room as well, “Dad” would get under that every night – though, what protection it would be I dunno! And “Mum”, Pam and I got underneath the Morrison. But we couldn’t lay lengthways because it w w w. d i s c o v e r y o u r h i s t o r y. n e t
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SISTER WILKINSON and pupils in the nursery, c1938. The Independent Photography Project
in I go and I fumbled around to try and find Mum and I couldn’t find anybody! Suddenly Dad came in from the garden and he said, “Oh good. I’m glad you’ve come, Nurse, we’re all in the shelter. What a terrible night!” ‘So he said, “Come in.” So I get into the kitchen. And he said, “We
can’t have any of her nice stuff. That’s all upstairs and I’m too frightened to go up and get it.” I said, “Oh, never mind, we’ll have all the bowls and stuff from the kitchen. Don’t worry to go upstairs, for goodness sake!” Because he’d got four children, four little girls.
A few basic comforts ‘Down the bottom of the shelter he’d made it that there were like two shelves and there were two little girls on one shelf and two on the other, one either end. Lovely little girls. Anyway, there was Mum lying on the bunk and there was another bunk entrance, so I just got in and looked at her, you see, and I said,
FRESH AIR activities at the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies, Woolwich. The Independent Photography Project, courtesy of Trish le Gal
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w w w. d i s c o v e r y o u r h i s t o r y. n e t
Social History Midwife’s Tale
“Well, I think what we’d better do is get everything to the shelter that we can think of. Then we won’t have to go out. If the water’s cold, it’s just cold and that’s it.” So he said, “Well, before it got too bad I brought down that great big jug you put cold water in.” They hold eight pints, you know, the old jugs and basins on the old washstands. Marvellous. Great boon. Well, they had one of those jugs, didn’t have a basin. So I said, “Well, fill that with water and I’ll get down in this Anderson [shelter] (you know, they were dug right down) and you pass everything down to me and I’ll take it and then when you’ve finished you come on down.” He said, “There’s an upturned bucket. You can sit on there for a seat.”
A shock to the system ‘So I sat on it – had a bit of a rim round me! He got ready to give me that water, and just as he was about to give it to me the doodlebug had stopped and it was coming down – swishing – any minute it was going to drop. I mean, you didn’t know where it’s going to land. And so what did he do? He was so frightened he fell and he tipped eight pints of cold water over me! From head to foot, I was absolutely drenched! Right, of course, he cried, he was in such a state. Me dripping wet from head to foot. Well, what could I do? I just laughed! And it was all mud underneath, you see. It was earth and it just made it into all slosh! ‘The mother said, “Well, you can’t stay like that!” I said, “No, well, I’ll have to get some of these clothes off,” because I was wringing wet. Well, we’d lost all the water and we’ve to go up to get more water, so she said, “You’d better go up. In the kitchen there’s my clothes that I dropped out of on the floor.” So I dressed in her maternity clothes in the kitchen! Didn’t care whether Dad could see what I was doing or not! I undressed in the kitchen! He said, “I won’t look.” I said, “You can’t see if you did!” It was pitch black. He said, “Where are you?” I said, “I’m finding the clothes!” Oh! Nothing so funny in all of my life! So I go down in her maternity clothes! And he had to proceed to get some more water. I don’t think I w w w. d i s c o v e r y o u r h i s t o r y. n e t
ever got any hot water from beginning to end.
Four new big sisters ‘Anyway, he’d made little curtains across the bunks and these little children kept looking out at me. And I said, “Now look, if you’re very good when the baby comes you can open the curtains when I tell you and have a look. ...” ‘We carried on, and Mum was delivered on the bunk, no stitches, and Dad was wonderful. He was in a terrible state about what he’d done to me. I said, “Don’t be silly – that’s nothing!” Anyway, she was marvellous and the baby was born and it was a boy and she’d told me that she was going to call it Richard if it was a boy. And I said, “We’ve got Richard!” And I said, “Children – you’ve got a little baby brother.” And d’you know, it was just like out of comic cuts. They all pulled the little curtains back – this is true! – they pulled the little curtains back and had a little look out! MIDWIFE ELSIE Walkerdine attended the births of more than 4,000 babies in Deptford, South East London. Private collection: Mary Thorley
‘And I said, “I’ll bring the baby over and show you in a minute.” And they were awake all that time. And I took the baby over, pulled the curtains back, they had a look and then they went to sleep. We never heard another word. About 4 o’clock in the morning, the doodlebugs stopped because it was light. Dawn coming, they didn’t come on over then. … ‘That was my most wonderful delivery. All on my own. I mean, when you think of it, that wasn’t bad was it? … You can imagine, can’t you. I was absolutely elated!’ I
Nicky Leap (left) and Billie Hunter. Nicky Leap and Billie Hunter are both midwives. In the 1980s, through a series of contacts from family, friends and the Royal College of Midwives, they interviewed elderly retired midwives and women who gave birth before the National Health Service was set up in 1948. The stories they were told were very moving and formed the basis of their book, The Midwife’s Tale: An Oral History from Handywoman to Professional Midwife (first published 1993). The new edition, published by Pen and Sword Books at £14.99, brings these intriguing and sometimes humorous first-hand accounts to a new readership.
READER OFFER 20% off plus FREE UK postage and packing. Call 01226 734222 and quote code 311741 or visit www.pen-andsword.co.uk and the enter code. D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 3 • D I S C O V E R YO U R H I S TO RY
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