The Liverpool Nightingales, page 26
‘It’s all right, Lizzie,’ said Marie, placing a reassuring hand on the woman’s arm. ‘You can get back now. I think there’s a fella waiting for you, but listen out, will you? I’m going to stay in here and I’ll holler if we need anything else.’
‘Right you are,’ said the woman, her eyes still wide. ‘I’ll let all the others know as well.’
‘We’re all set now,’ said Marie steadily as Alice clung on to Maud. The pains were definitely lasting longer and Maud sensed that the labour was progressing very quickly indeed.
‘That was a big one all right,’ said Alice breathlessly as, at last, the pain began to subside.
‘We might be getting close now,’ said Maud steadily.
Maud saw Alice look terrified and she felt a glimmer of that inside herself as well but bit it down hard. ‘It’s all right, everything will be all right,’ she said, as much to herself as to Alice. Nevertheless, she knew that she was still listening out for the sound of Eddy coming. Why was she taking so long with her family? The labour was progressing at a very rapid rate and by this stage Maud was forced to accept that neither Eddy nor Stella would get there in time. Her legs felt a bit weak at this realization, and she had to make an almost physical effort to silence the voice screaming in her brain, telling her that she didn’t know what she was doing.
‘Alice,’ said Maud gently, ‘I think we need to help you take off that big skirt and remove your underclothes. Can we just slip these off then, Alice, before the next pain?’
‘And before she sits back down,’ said Marie, ‘let’s put some towels under her, on the seat, and some on the floor, like that. That’s it, now it feels like we are ready … Whoa, there she goes again.’
Alice had to remain standing for this one and lean forward on the kitchen table again. Maud stood next to her, a hand on her friend’s back. She could see that Alice had got herself into a rhythm with the breathing and she was so proud of how she was managing.
‘You’re doing so well, Alice,’ she whispered as she saw that the pain was beginning to subside, and then Maud started swiftly unbuttoning her cuffs and rolling up her sleeves.
But before she could get very far another pain came on top of the last one and something sounded different.
Alice was making a grunting sound, a guttural sound that came from deep within her.
‘It looks like she’s ready to push,’ said Marie. ‘We’d best get ready.’
Maud picked up a clean tea cloth and mopped her friend’s brow, but now it seemed like Alice had gone to a different place and she didn’t seem to notice what Maud was doing. She was still making that noise, though, and then she started to yell, ‘Aaaargh!’ with the sheer effort.
‘Sit back down in the chair,’ said Maud, trying to help her friend back.
‘Get off me,’ growled Alice. ‘Get off.’
Maud knew that she would have to take control so she stated more firmly, ‘Alice, sit down. I need to check.’
She remembered when Lil was giving birth how some sticky mass had emerged and then the baby was about to be born.
Alice still didn’t move and Marie came closer. ‘Sit down now, Alice. Sit down on the chair,’ and this time Alice did as she was told.
Maud lifted up Alice’s shift and she could see that everything was starting to bulge down there. She glanced up at Marie, her heart racing. ‘I think it’s coming,’ she said, and Marie nodded.
‘Right then, Alice,’ said Maud, remembering what Sister Pritchard had said to Lil at this stage, ‘when the next pain comes you push. Push as hard as you can.’
It was only seconds before Alice was yelling out again but this time she was pushing as well – she couldn’t stop herself – and she pushed as if her life depended on it.
Maud could see the sticky mass getting bigger very quickly and then, magically, she saw a tiny face appear. The face was a bluish colour but it was beautiful, the most beautiful face that Maud had ever seen, and in that moment she was in awe at being the first person, ever, to see that new face coming into the world. She felt a lump in her throat and tears started to well up in her eyes and then, in the next moment, she was panicking inside: oh my God, oh my God, I hope it’s going to be able to breathe. She knew that they needed to get the little one out as fast as they could, and make sure he or she was breathing.
‘Now with the next contraction, push, push,’ she urged Alice. ‘Keep pushing.’
Alice pushed very hard and the baby shot out of her body on a stream of blood and watery fluid. It shot straight out so quickly that it was a good job Maud stood ready because she had to catch the tiny thing. It was all slippery and so small that she was terrified that she was going to drop it. But she had the baby firm in her grasp and she could see it was a little girl. She felt the tears come to her eyes then and she couldn’t stop them. ‘It’s a girl, it’s a girl,’ she cried to Alice, holding up the tiny human being for her friend to see.
Alice smiled but then she started to cry. ‘She is so beautiful, so very beautiful, but is she all right? Is she breathing?’
Maud had already seen that so far the baby girl was not breathing, or even looking like she was trying to, and her alarm grew as she saw the baby’s skin looking quite blue.
Laying the tiny baby down on to the stack of towels on the floor, she had to answer the question. ‘She’s not breathing yet, but she will,’ she said determinedly. Looking down again at the scrap of life there in front of her, Maud knew that she had very little time to make a difference, that what she did right then was the most important thing she had ever done in her whole life. She felt her heart pounding but she was strangely calm. She needed to stimulate the baby in some way, give her encouragement to take a breath, so she took the towel and she gave her body a bit of a rub, only gently, but the baby still lay there lifeless. She rubbed a bit harder this time and then she turned her over on to her side, like she’d seen them do with unconscious patients in theatre. She rubbed her again even more vigorously. Time was ticking on, there was everything to lose now, and she simply had to get the baby to breathe. She held her breath, gritting her teeth, rubbed again and then she heard a tiny snuffle. She felt some movement and she could see that the baby was starting to move her tiny hand. Then she moved her head and opened her mouth, and at last she let out a tentative cry.
Maud felt a surge of pure joy go through her body; she had never felt anything like it. She wrapped the baby in the towel and held her up for Alice to see, tears streaming down her face. Instinctively Alice held out her arms for the baby and Maud reached up with her and let Alice have her. The cord was still attached and dangling down, but as far as Maud could see it didn’t seem to matter. The thing that needed to be done was to hand the baby to her mother and that is exactly what she did.
All she could do then was stand and watch Alice and the baby, her head singing, her heart racing. When she looked down her hand that was resting on the kitchen table was stained with blood and something sticky, but none of that mattered. The baby was breathing! Alice’s baby was alive! Then Maud took a deep breath and collected herself, remembering what Sister Pritchard had said about the afterbirth. She knew that she needed to take charge again. ‘Alice, when you feel the urge to push again, push as hard as you can. We need to make sure that all of the afterbirth comes away.’
But Alice didn’t seem to be listening. She was just gazing into the tiny face of the baby in absolute wonder, and Maud could see that the baby’s hand, her tiny hand that had perfect fingernails, was grasping the end of Alice’s finger.
‘Look at her wispy hair,’ she marvelled. ‘It’s light brown like her father’s hair, like Jamie’s hair, just the same.’ Alice’s eyes filled with tears and she looked back at her little girl, telling her, ‘He doesn’t even know anything about you, does he? He might never know.’
‘Do you need to push?’ reminded Maud, starting to feel anxious again and seeing that there was a trickle of something on to the towels on the floor and some bleeding.
‘I don’t know, I think so,’ said Alice.
‘Right, Alice, push if you can,’ said Maud, noticing more bleeding and trying to keep the rising concern out of her voice. She had remembered something that Eddy had told her a few weeks ago about some woman on the lying-in ward dying of a haemorrhage after the baby was born. She could not allow that to happen.
‘Push, that’s it, push,’ said Maud, and then to her great relief, the afterbirth started to appear and she grasped it and wrapped it in a towel. There was still some bleeding but it wasn’t gushing out or anything, and Maud was happy with Alice’s colour. They were always checking a patient’s colour in theatre. Alice was nice and pink and the baby was much less blue-looking now. Her hands and feet were still blue but that was all. Maud was glad that they were in the kitchen next to the range so that the baby wouldn’t get cold.
Then the kitchen door burst open and a dog with long legs and a thin tail came bounding in, closely followed by Harry Donahue. ‘Jeez, what the—’ said Harry, instantly withdrawing as Marie shouted, ‘Get that dog out of here.’ Maud had never seen anyone move so fast. Harry was gone from that room in an instant.
Maud and Marie exchanged glances and Marie shook her head, muttering something about bloody men …
Then the door started to open once more and they both stood ready to tell Harry to make himself scarce again. Maud nearly collapsed with relief when she saw it was Eddy in her big hat with the bright-red silk flower pinned on the side, a look of shock and wonder on her face.
For once their friend was speechless. She stood with her mouth dropped open, looking from Alice to Maud, then from Maud to Alice. ‘What the blazes has been going on here?’ she said at last, moving straight over to Alice and the baby with tears in her eyes.
‘Will you look at that?’ she said. ‘It’s a tiny, tiny baby. I’ve never seen a live one that’s so small, and she’s perfect. She’s a bit underdone, but look at her tiny hands and her fingers. Oh, Alice, she is perfect,’ said Eddy, starting to cry but smiling at the same time.
‘She is, isn’t she?’ said Alice, beaming.
‘And you, Maud, you’ve done all of this?’
Maud nodded. ‘With some help from Marie here, but yes, I had no choice, did I, Alice?’
‘None at all,’ said Alice, looking down at the baby and gently stroking her face. ‘This little one was coming and that was it. There was no way round it, was there?’
‘Well, I never,’ said Eddy, removing her hat and laying it aside.
Then seeing Maud standing by Alice, still holding the afterbirth wrapped in a towel, Eddy rolled up her sleeves. ‘Now let me get that cord tied off and separated for you. It’s the least I can do.’
Maud was so glad to see her friend take over that she suddenly felt completely drained of everything and slumped down on one of the kitchen chairs. Eddy put a hand on her shoulder and said, ‘You have done an incredible job here, Maud, you have for sure. We’ll make a midwife out of you yet.’ Eddy took some string and a pair of scissors from her pocket.
She must always carry them with her just in case, thought Maud, feeling amused but way too tired to say anything except, ‘Being a midwife is not for me, Eddy.’
Maud watched as Eddy expertly got on with all that needed to be done, even bringing a bowl of hot water and the soap over to the table for Maud, so that she could sit there and wash her hands. She still felt like she was in a dream as she plunged her hands into the water. It was a bit too hot for comfort, but that made Maud smile, remembering the first time that she had worked with Eddy on the ward and she had been so enthusiastic about applying those leeches. Then, as she slowly washed her hands and she could see the blood mingling with the water and her hands coming clean again, she started to feel some strength come back into her body.
Marie had brewed a huge pot of tea and she was busying herself getting out some slabs of bread and butter and some cake. The kitchen was warm, the baby was making little snuffly noises and to Maud, just then, this small world at the heart of a brothel seemed to be the most perfect place on earth.
‘Put her to the breast, Alice,’ said Eddy. ‘See if she can suckle. She might be a bit small so don’t worry if she can’t. We can express your milk and feed her with a teaspoon at first.’
Eddy is so good and so clever with all this stuff, thought Maud, seeing how interested her friend was in the baby and knowing how hard she would work to make sure that she was fed and therefore would stand the best chance that she could get. Looking again at the child, Maud had no idea if a baby so small and so early could survive, but she knew that she, Eddy and of course Alice would do everything that they could to make that happen. She felt the fire of it burning in her belly already: she would do anything for that baby.
There was a gentle tap at the door and all the women looked up at once. They heard a muffled voice – a man’s voice – and Marie went over to answer. Looking back from the door to Alice she said, ‘It’s Harry. He’s asking if he can come in and have a look at the baby. He says he understands if you don’t want him to but he would love to have a look at the little girl.’
‘Of course he can come in,’ beamed Alice, riding on the crest of a wave now.
‘And the dog?’ said Marie.
‘Yes, yes, let the dog in as well.’
So they both came through: Harry, with the dog trotting after him. Maud saw how eager he was to see the baby. He looked straight over to Alice and then she saw how his face glowed with tenderness when he saw the little one. ‘She is perfect,’ he said, his voice not much more than a whisper. ‘I have never seen one so tiny before. She is a very special little girl, aren’t you, aren’t you, little one?’ he said, stroking the baby’s face so, so gently.
Maud felt herself groan inside as she sensed the hard lump of feeling that she had from the night before start to melt inside her. What woman would have been able to resist the sight of a big hulk of a man like Harry Donahue stroking the face of a tiny baby with a finger skinned at the knuckle from a fight? The whole room was drawn to the sight of it, all watching him.
Then he looked up straight at Maud and she felt it in the pit of her stomach, as if he had sent out an invisible arrow straight across the room to her. For goodness’ sake, she thought to herself, oh for goodness’ sake … but she knew in that moment that, as far as Harry Donahue was concerned, she was completely lost.
The door opened again and Stella bustled in holding the hand of the woman with the red hair that Maud had met on their first visit to Stella’s all those months ago. They were both a bit breathless and, of course, surprised by the kitchen full of people and a brand-new baby. Marie was clearly glad to see Stella’s friend. She went over and hugged her, saying, ‘Laura, Laura,’ over and over again.
Stella saw everyone looking and said, ‘It’s a long story. We will tell you all, but first, let’s just have a look at this special little person. I hope it’s a girl.’
‘She is,’ said Alice, ‘and I was thinking of calling her Stella, but then I thought that might all get a bit confusing with us living here, so I thought I’d call her the nearest thing. I’d call her Victoria, like the queen, like our queen here in this house, our Stella.’
‘Thank you for that, Alice,’ said Stella, overcome for just a second, her face flushing bright red with pleasure.
‘Well, I don’t know where we would have been without you, Stella, and your generosity. I might well have seen my baby born in the workhouse and not be sitting here now in your warm kitchen with all these people, so she will have a queenly name, after you.’
‘Here’s to Victoria,’ said Harry immediately, raising his cup of tea in the direction of Alice and the baby. ‘And to Stella, our own queen.’
‘To Victoria and to Stella!’ cheered the whole room as one, and then Harry sidled over to stand behind Maud and he watched as she reached out a hand to give his dog a stroke as it stationed itself beside her chair.
19
‘Let each person tell the truth from his own experience.’
Florence Nightingale
Maud and Eddy made sure that Alice was well padded up with cushions and that the baby was lovely and warm snuggled right up to her mother before they sat down at Stella’s kitchen table with a ready supply of hot tea. There was a sense of a very special bond in that room. It felt like no one wanted to leave, to break the spell. After Marie had brewed yet another pot of tea, she came back to the table and put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder.
‘So what happened to you two tonight?’ she said.
Stella waited for Marie to sit back down at the table next to Laura and then she said, ‘Well, it was as we thought. Laura here was picked up off the street by the police and taken away by them.’
Marie pursed her lips and shook her head, reaching across for Laura’s hand.
‘Is it all right if I tell them what happened to you, Laura, or do you want to tell them?’ said Stella.
‘No, no,’ said Laura. ‘You tell them, Stella.’
‘Well, a few nights ago, Laura was on an evening off and she’d just come out of the pub. Two policemen in plain clothes came out of the shadows and were there by the side of her straight away. They didn’t give her any choice. They grabbed her and bundled her into a carriage and took her straight up to the Lock Hospital.’
Maud whispered to Eddy, ‘That nearly happened to me one night.’
‘What?’ whispered Eddy. ‘They nearly took you, of all people?’
Maud nodded grimly.
‘Well, I won’t go into the detail of what they did to Laura up at that hospital, but we all know what’s been goin’ on up there with women brought in off the street. They accused her of carrying infection and they told her she’d need treatment – weeks of treatment with mercury – and she would be locked up in there until the doctor was satisfied that she was no longer a danger to men.’
