Call The Midwife

Newspaper article from the Daily Express, 1962

Life Begins...

I suppose lots of new mums keep records of their children as babies just as mums of the past have. My mum was no exception, and I still have the little book in which she entered details about my birth, as well as when I first smiled, walked and talked. Among the few things she kept was this newspaper cutting (above) from the Daily Express, dated Monday 22 October 1962. She kept it because the lady in the photo was the midwife who brought me into the world in that very year.

Unlike today, giving birth at home was the norm up until about the 1970's. So the district midwife was the person called upon when labour got under way. As the BBC TV series 'Call the Midwife' illustrates, these midwives served all sectors of society and often worked in less than ideal conditions. Very often their only mode of transport was by bicycle or on foot.

Contents

• A Thankful Community
• And There's More...

A Thankful Community 

 

Close up of Ann Brown

The lady in the article above, namely Ann Brown of Bentley, was retiring in 1962 after delivering her 4,000th baby. This what the article says:

'Cheering, shouting and dancing down the street, scores of children follow Nurse Ann Brown. They are a few of the 4,000 she has brought into the world during her 35 years as midwife at the pit village of Bentley, near Doncaster.

But now - with the birth of the 4,000th baby - she is retiring, aged 64. And this was the children's way of saying farewell to her, as Mrs Brown walked home from church yesterday.

Health officials and her colleagues are to say a formal "goodbye" later, and villagers are arranging a V.I.P. retirement party.

Said Mrs Brown: "It has been such a happy and yet sad week for me. I am happy that people should be so kind to me, but sad that I am retiring. It was a wonderful gesture by the children."

She has averaged 1,000 miles a year walking through the village streets. She cannot drive a car, and every time she tried a bicycle she fell off. Mrs Brown has twice delivered triplets and for the past few years has been delivering the children of babies she brought into the world.

Now she plans a very quiet retirement. "I feel I've earned it," she says "Mind you, I shan't object to delivering more babies in an emergency."

The line under the photo reads 'Nurse Ann Brown gets a Pied Piper-type farewell from some of the 4,000 children she has helped into the world.'

I hope this dedicated lady went on to have a long and happy retirement, she certainly deserved it. Perhaps some of you knew her or, like me, were delivered into her capable hands? Let me know. 

Ann Brown at her retirement presentation. Photo courtesy of Colin Bradbury.

And There's More... 

 

 

I found another newspaper cutting among some old photos. From the Doncaster Gazette of  October 18th 1962 I now realize that I had mistakenly read the year on the other cutting as 1968 (bad printing), so having amended that here's a transcription of this new find:

'For 35 years a busy woman has covered the streets of Bentley on foot on errands which have literally meant life for many people - more than 3,500 in fact. In her neat and trim uniform she has become a figure as familiar to the population as the policemen and postmen, and far more intimately acquainted with those whom she serves. At the end of this month her tiring beat will terminate, for the W.R.C.C. Health Service's district midwife, Nurse Ann Brown, of Askern Road, officially retires.

The actual date is October 28, a day before her 65th birthday. "But," says Nurse Brown "retirement will not mean a period of idleness, because I shall keep in contact with my colleagues and the many friends I have made, and will continue my work with the Doncaster branch of the Royal College of Midwives, of which I have been chairman for 12 years."

Born in Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, Nurse Brown moved to Bentley with her young daughter in 1924, to join her late husband who three years previously had started work at Bentley Colliery. Although working as a miner, he was a keen member of the St John Ambulance service, which influenced Nurse Brown's decision to make midwifery a career. She went on a course of training at Liverpool and returned to Bentley in 1927 with her qualifications and ambitions.

"I seem to have got on with the people right from the start." Nurse Brown said, "I have always been pleased with their attitude towards me and the co-operation they have given. I have now brought considerably more than 3,500 babies into the world, including ten sets of twins and two sets of triplets. Strangely enough, the triplets all arrived in the same year.'

Friend to Hundreds

'In the course of her duties, Nurse Brown must have walked "hundreds of miles" she says. She has never owned a cycle or a car, but has relied on the bus service and a pair of sturdy legs.

"In my earlier years I had an accident when learning to ride a bicycle, and somehow never regained the confidence to ride again or learn to drive a car. But I have found walking a pleasant and healthy exercise, though nowadays, particularly on night calls, I rely on the county ambulance service which has been a great help."

Nurse Brown has been connected with Bentley child welfare clinic since it was established in the welfare park pavillion 32 years ago. She has been counsellor and friend to literally hundreds of mothers, many of whom will be joining Nurse Brown's colleagues and V.I.P.'s of the county health service at a farewell get-together they are planning for October 24 in the Pavilion.'

__________

Alison Vainlo 

First written 2014, updated 2020