Lost and found
Nov 08, 2023, 01:11 PM
Maggie Eisner gives and anecdote of delivering a baby in a house full of people watching a football match:
Eisner
Well, Les was quite, was pretty much involved in the home births, but I think the midwives here would say that I was a very important person in the home births business and we also did GP births at the hospital and there were some really difficult old fashioned consultants. The obstetrician at the time. So there are a fair few women around who are really appreciative of the role that I played and a fair few midwives likewise.
And interestingly it's now taken for granted that straight women are going to want their male partners with them at deliveries. And some of the most joyful and life enhancing deliveries I've been at have been where it was all women. And they're all so different. It's so lovely that women have a chance to express their individuality. I remember one birth when they actually had a parrot. And the parrot was downstairs, and he kept talking. And in the end we put a blanket on this parrot. But me and the midwife and she were sitting upstairs and we were just talking endlessly about shopping, not something I normally talk about. But she was comfortable and happy talking about shopping. And she had a really lovely birth, and I'm sure that the baby was all the better for having had, you know, whatever neuroendocrine mechanisms were involved.
And on the and I remember another one, people. Yeah. I remember another one which was on a hot weekend and Les and I had agreed that one of us would take over from the other. Which way round was it? I think I may have been the person and he was there second, but anyway we this was in a Council house very crowded, loads of people in the room. Patient was smoking and they had the telly on and which no one was taking any notice of. And anyway it was a, you know, just that particular atmosphere and the woman has had several babies before I think. And then Les arrived and I was about to go and he likes football. So and there was a. I think the World Cup was on and he asked whether he could turn the channel over and so he did. And I think the crowning of the head coincided with an important goal. Everybody applauded.
Interviewer
What's the I mean, where you getting sort of support nationally around the home birth movement? Was this something very unusual that you were doing here or was there?
Eisner
In my mind, all the encouragement came from limes Groves. That was definitely where it started in my head.
Interviewer
Because you'd had the experience, you then felt able to progress experience.
Eisner
Yes, I would say that I had a lot of local encouragement. Yeah. Now there was, I think. But it definitely was a national maternity organisation. I remember going to a conference of it in Berwick on Tweed, which is a very nice place, can't remember what was said or anything like that. I mean, so yes, I was peripherally connected to stuff like that. But it was more of the local conditions, the support that I had in the practise and above all.
Interviewer
And your own vision
Eisner
Well, Les was quite, was pretty much involved in the home births, but I think the midwives here would say that I was a very important person in the home births business and we also did GP births at the hospital and there were some really difficult old fashioned consultants. The obstetrician at the time. So there are a fair few women around who are really appreciative of the role that I played and a fair few midwives likewise.
And interestingly it's now taken for granted that straight women are going to want their male partners with them at deliveries. And some of the most joyful and life enhancing deliveries I've been at have been where it was all women. And they're all so different. It's so lovely that women have a chance to express their individuality. I remember one birth when they actually had a parrot. And the parrot was downstairs, and he kept talking. And in the end we put a blanket on this parrot. But me and the midwife and she were sitting upstairs and we were just talking endlessly about shopping, not something I normally talk about. But she was comfortable and happy talking about shopping. And she had a really lovely birth, and I'm sure that the baby was all the better for having had, you know, whatever neuroendocrine mechanisms were involved.
And on the and I remember another one, people. Yeah. I remember another one which was on a hot weekend and Les and I had agreed that one of us would take over from the other. Which way round was it? I think I may have been the person and he was there second, but anyway we this was in a Council house very crowded, loads of people in the room. Patient was smoking and they had the telly on and which no one was taking any notice of. And anyway it was a, you know, just that particular atmosphere and the woman has had several babies before I think. And then Les arrived and I was about to go and he likes football. So and there was a. I think the World Cup was on and he asked whether he could turn the channel over and so he did. And I think the crowning of the head coincided with an important goal. Everybody applauded.
Interviewer
What's the I mean, where you getting sort of support nationally around the home birth movement? Was this something very unusual that you were doing here or was there?
Eisner
In my mind, all the encouragement came from limes Groves. That was definitely where it started in my head.
Interviewer
Because you'd had the experience, you then felt able to progress experience.
Eisner
Yes, I would say that I had a lot of local encouragement. Yeah. Now there was, I think. But it definitely was a national maternity organisation. I remember going to a conference of it in Berwick on Tweed, which is a very nice place, can't remember what was said or anything like that. I mean, so yes, I was peripherally connected to stuff like that. But it was more of the local conditions, the support that I had in the practise and above all.
Interviewer
And your own vision