More Info →Foxton Maternity Home 1942-1982 Page 35

Description

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Wooden Head:
John's mother to woodwork teacher:

"Thank you for teaching John woodwork. He has already
made two chairs out of his head and still has enough wood left to make another one".

There Is Nothing Nicer Than...

Porridge Made with Milk, Cooked slowly over-night in a double boiler on the coal range! Delicious- (What happened to it before breakfast-sometimes...) I do remember two very hungry nurse-aids making short work of it once or twice,-then quickly preparing another pot-full for the patients, which had at least two hours to cook, so turned out nicely and the crime was undetected. (Perhaps, it should stay this way!)

Anonymous
(nurse-aid of the 1950's)

Doctor Malthus Writes:

1. Non-Diagnosis of Twins

Doctor, monitoring the mother, "Sister, I think we need another bassinet".

Sister, attending to the baby, "Why, what's wrong with this one?"

Doctor, Nothing, but it's not big enough for two!

(A couple of weeks later, a princes of Luxembourg went into labour, unfortunately in the weekend, because the General had gone on leave, leaving 21 rounds of ammunition available to be fired off if the baby was a boy. For a girl, 12 would be used and the rest to put back in stock on Monday. But twins arrived, and there was a great panic as people hunted for the General to provide an adequate salute for the two.)

Anyway, I felt less upset about my miss-diagnosis after that.

2. Phone call about 2am, "X here, would you please come to the Maternity home, to give an anaesthetic so I can deliver the second twin?" About 10 minutes later, with s-fronted, patient anaesthetised, "I'm sorry, there does not seem to be another twin!"

Sister to patient, "Mrs H, this is your tenth baby, surely it's not that bad."

Patient, "No, I can't feel a thing, but I can't help mysklf, waaaahhhh..." And you could see the ceiling shiver!

It was usual to adjourn to the staff room after a delivery, for a cup of tea. On one occasion the midwife, who was relieving for a couple of weeks, had suggested rather strongly that I needed help with the delivery: but the baby arrived without much effort. A young nurse-aid asked afterwards whether I wanted a cuppa, but came back a few minutes later with a very red face and said, "Matron says you are not to have any!" Obviously it was much worse for her than me.

The back door of the Maternity home was much closer to the staff room than the front

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Identification

Date

2005