Alice's blog...

A birth at Royal Cornwall Hospital, 1980

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Last year I wondered if our local hospital still had my birth notes from 38 years ago, so Mum and I applied to the records office to see...
 
They did!
 
A fascinating read. On admission mum was all set for a normal, physiological birth of her first baby. These days she probably would have had a waterbirth in our beautiful new centre...
 
Obviously they didn't have the same facilities in the early 80s, but it's particularly interesting to observe the power play...
 
In those days, upon admission a mother was routinely shaved, given an enema, bath and a hospital gown before being put on her back, waters broken and continuous monitoring commenced. Thankfully much of the world has now moved on from such care!
 
In my Mum's case doctors were summoned for a forceps birth due to a 'delay in 2nd stage' after merely 50 minutes of 'active pushing', despite all being well (these days doctors aren't usually consulted until at least 2-3 hours into active 2nd stage).
 
I'm also really pleased to see that we don't have these any more: "Request for husband to be present at his wife's confinement" (!!!)


dads attending births