Title
Midwife at the Leicester General Hospital
Subject
Public Health
Description
An audio clip about working as a midwife at Leicester General Hospital with descriptions of attitudes to abortions and miscarriages.
Source
EMOHA
Publisher
EMOHA
Rights
You may use this item in accordance with the licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Language
English
Duration
1 min 47 sec
Transcription
Three years before 1945, I was in charge on night duty at the whole department. Those days it was a case of just work and this. We're very short staffed on the ward. I was sometimes the only midwife on duty at night. And I've got two full wards with patients. Some of them were gynaecological patients needed operations. They were what we call ‘dirty midwifery’ on the Gynae ward, which was where mothers that were not booked with us, that came in from outside as emergencies. They weren't dirty, of course, but what we meant by that was we have to be careful they weren't infected in any way because they didn't have the same services outside that they have nowadays you see, and some mothers have no attention at all, they didn't bother to book themselves anywhere at all. They didn't see a doctor or anything. And then when they went into labour, they just was sent into us.
And what kind of infections did you come across then, from the women?
Various infections, of course they could have had urinary infections. They could have tried to get rid of the baby at some stage and have some very unpleasant diseases.
Hmm. Did you see many cases of kind of backstreet abortion or anything?
Yes, there were plenty in those days on the Gynae wards.
What kind of state would they come in in?
Very bad, very serious. Very ill and a lot of them died.
How did women and their families react to miscarriage?
And they came into hospital and they were looked at and they went home again. There were no reacting to it. It was very usual. I mean, they either miscarried because, you know, for medical reasons or very often they brought it about themselves because they couldn't afford more children, didn't want any more children, and they weren't they, there wasn't the pill in those days. There was no way else of avoiding pregnancy. Some people would have had a baby every nine months.
And what kind of infections did you come across then, from the women?
Various infections, of course they could have had urinary infections. They could have tried to get rid of the baby at some stage and have some very unpleasant diseases.
Hmm. Did you see many cases of kind of backstreet abortion or anything?
Yes, there were plenty in those days on the Gynae wards.
What kind of state would they come in in?
Very bad, very serious. Very ill and a lot of them died.
How did women and their families react to miscarriage?
And they came into hospital and they were looked at and they went home again. There were no reacting to it. It was very usual. I mean, they either miscarried because, you know, for medical reasons or very often they brought it about themselves because they couldn't afford more children, didn't want any more children, and they weren't they, there wasn't the pill in those days. There was no way else of avoiding pregnancy. Some people would have had a baby every nine months.
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