When Pablo Picasso was born, the midwife thought he was stillborn. A physician uncle revived him, reputedly by breathing cigar smoke into his lungs. Thomas Hardy was also thought to be stillborn. Then a nurse saw him move.
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| Stories Of Women Giving Birth |
Ralph and Carolyn Cummins of Clintwood, Virginia, USA, had five children. Catherine was born on 20 February, 1952. Carol was born on 20 February, 1953. Charles came along on 20 February, 1956, Claudia on 20 February, 1961 and Cecilia on 20 February, 1966. (Ralph clearly got a bit sprightly in May.)
This comes from an encyclopaedia of folklore published in Chicago in 1903:
'A child born in January will be laborious,
'In February will love money much but women more.
'The person born in March will be honest and rather handsome.
'The person born in April will be subject to maladies and will travel to his disadvantage.
'A person born in May will be handsome and amiable,
'In June, will be small of stature and very fond of children,
'In July, will be fat and constant,
'In August, ambitious and courageous,
'In September, strong and prudent,
'In October, will be wicked and inconstant and will have a florid complexion,
'In November, will be a gay deceiver,
'In December, will be of passionate disposition and will devote himself to public affairs.'
In the UK, there's always a higher than average number of births in January, February and March, and a lower than average number in October, November and December. In England and Wales there are between 1,500 and 2000 births every day.
DUNCAN: J's birth was remarkably straightforward. Dinah was amazingly together; organized, efficient, informed, so she knew and understood what was going on, and because she works in a medical environment she had an insight into that system, and how they work. There are certain options you can have for the birth and she had gone in and found out what they were and worked out what she wanted to do. So a lot of the responsibility in that respect was taken away from me, which was good.
On the morning of the birth she started having contractions about four o'clock in the morning. She got up, left me sleeping, started timing them. Then at six o'clock they were getting closer together, so she woke me up and said, I think we need to go to the hospital.
The bags were packed, everything was ready, so we got in the car, drove up there, I was trying to crack a few jokes on the way to keep the mood light-hearted. We were in perfectly good spirits. Got to the hospital, they took us through. Dinah's contractions by then were getting closer and closer together, it was starting to happen. And they said, right, let's go through, they put her in the delivery room, and the midwife came in, a young midwife, who Dinah knew from her training. And she was a really nice girl, it was a good atmosphere, very upbeat.
J arrived remarkably straightforwardly at ten past twelve - about four hours after we'd got to the hospital. Gas and air was all Dinah had. She'd suffered at the point of delivery, of course, but the whole thing was about as simple as they come, I think. The cord was around J's neck when she came out, but I remember the midwife quickly whipping the cord off, very efficiently, no bother at all.
Wrapped her up, brought her over, and I remember us just being really excited and feeling really happy. I must say, I do remember thinking afterwards that I was glad it wasn't any longer than four hours because I was starting to get fed up. I was pleased it was quick, because some people are there for days, aren't they? But it was lovely, really was. The process felt really satisfying. It was quite special. I felt completely happy about it at that point. To find out more, you can check out Stories Of Women Giving Birth.