Bundles of Joy by Linda Fairley

Author:Linda Fairley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Chapter Ten

‘I haven’t felt the baby move’

In the mid-Eighties Ian and I bought a static caravan in Benllech Bay, Anglesey, and one summer we all learned to water-ski and loved it so much we saved up to buy a little speedboat. The children were really good at water-skiing, and we always had a ball whenever we went to the caravan site. Over the summer holidays I’d spend as much time as possible at the caravan, often just returning home to work my two evenings per week.

In term time the children did everything from Cubs and Brownies to swimming and dancing and Army Cadet training, and they often went to my parents’ house for their tea after school. Of course, they had none of the electronic gadgets and computer games that children today have, but they’d make up their own games or play outside with balls and skipping ropes. Ian was often at work, but it didn’t bother me. I liked nothing better than watching the children grow up happy.

‘How’s your day been?’ he’d always ask me, to which I’d reply by telling him all about what the children got up to.

I didn’t tell him much about my work, because even after being together for almost a decade by now, I always felt that I had to keep explaining my job to Ian because it was so very different to his. I found it a bit irritating, really, having to keep reminding him that in midwifery there are grey areas, and that feelings and intuition are more important than anything else.

I didn’t even make an exception after a particularly memorable night at work, in October 1986. A lady called Nicola Bowman was admitted to the labour ward at thirty-eight weeks pregnant, and her story touched me very deeply. I knew Ian would find her story hard to understand, as it technically involved breaking hospital regulations, and so I didn’t bother telling him. I think I told my mum instead, or maybe Sue Smith, as this was a story I felt I had to share.

‘I haven’t felt the baby move for two or three days,’ Nicola said fearfully when she arrived on the ward. ‘Do you think everything is all right?’

Nicola explained that she had booked an appointment at the antenatal clinic the following day, but had grown so concerned she’d asked her husband Nigel to drive her up the maternity unit at about 9 p.m., just as I started my shift.

‘Let’s have a little listen, shall we?’ I said, settling her on a bed and running the Sonicaid foetal heart monitor over her abdomen. I knew it could be a source of great worry to a pregnant woman when her baby went quiet in the womb at this late stage in pregnancy, and such concerns were always taken very seriously. Thankfully, we nearly always found that the baby was fine and had probably decided to be active while the woman slept, when she was unaware of the movement.

Nigel stood hovering by the bedside, biting his nails.

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