A Carriage for the Midwife (54 page)
Sophia helps him to lower the legs gently and place them together. The body lies upon the bed, pale and lifeless. Charles Parnham groans aloud.
But Susan is no longer ascending. She is falling from the sky, falling back through air to earth, down to the rectory and into the bedchamber. She re-enters her body with a moan of pain and discomfort: she is the mother of a daughter.
Sophia cries out: ‘She’s opening her eyes – she lives! Oh, praise God for His mercy, she lives!’
They all exclaim with joy, and Parnham utters his own silent thanksgiving with a prayer: God grant the child be not damaged by my handling: I shall have no peace until I see its progress.
He gives leave for the husband to be called, but Mag is already running down the stairs, out through the kitchen to the garden and the gate leading into the churchyard.
‘Parson Calthorpe, Parson Calthorpe! ’Ee’s to come up an’ see uns! Her’s had a little gal – it’s a gal!’
In no time Edward is on his knees beside the bed, giving thanks for his wife’s preservation. He rises and seizes Parnham in an embrace.
‘I shall be for ever in your debt, sir.’
‘You’d better baptise the child today, Calthorpe,’ advises the doctor gruffly, for once again he has to hide his own feelings.
Susan whispers: ‘Ha’ ye seen her, Edward, our little daughter? Show her to him, Sophy – isn’t she beautiful?’
Sophia’s eyes are brimming as she holds out a white bundle of towelling in which a squashy little face can be seen. The head is elongated, and there is a livid red mark on the side of the face where the forceps blade bit into the tender flesh.
‘Don’t mind the shape o’ her head, Edward,’ says Susan. ‘’Tis like Sam Twydell’s was at birth, and she’s bigger’n he was. ’Twill be as round as a ball by tomorrow, ye’ll see.’
‘Sh-she’s beautiful, my love,’ Edward stammers. ‘I will fetch water from the font of Great St Giles straight away. Is it still your wish that we name her Mary?’
‘Yes, Edward, but I’d like to call her Polly, if ye don’t mind,’ answers Susan, thinking of the baby’s aunt.
‘Just as you please, my love. She shall be chistened Mary and known as Polly,’ says the father, his eyes fixed upon the wife and child he has so nearly lost.
The baptism takes place in the birth-chamber, with Parson Calthorpe conducting the short ceremony in the presence of his wife and his mother, who has just arrived from Bever House. Miss Glover takes her place as godmother, and Dr Parnham agrees to stand as godfather. (It will give him a reason to keep a check on the child’s progress.) Mrs Decker is, of course, present as midwife, and Mrs Smart comes in holding little Kitty by the hand. Mag just manages to squeeze inside the door.
Edward gingerly puts out his forefinger to touch the baby’s hand, and she instantly curls her little fingers around it. He gazes down at this child – his child – and his heart seems to melt within him: he knows that he loves her.
Susan sees, and clasps her hands together in rapture.
‘Oh, isn’t she sweet? Look at her, Edward – our pretty little Polly!’
Trotula was an eleventh century Italian woman doctor. She lived in Salerno, which still has an old-established medical school. She was married to a doctor, Platearius, and their son Matteo also became a doctor.
Trotula specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology, and wrote several treatises on women’s health, some of which were used for hundreds of years for their practicality. She was an early advocate of making an incision into the perineum to facilitate delivery of the child’s head, and stressed the necessity for repairing it by stitching. This procedure is now known as episiotomy.
It has been suggested that Trotula may have been the original for the character ‘Dame Trot’ in children’s literature and pantomime, but I have found no substantial evidence for this.
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Epub ISBN: 9781448136605
Version 1.0
Published by Arrow Books in 2003
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Copyright © Maggie Bennett 2003
Maggie Bennett has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
This novel is a work of fiction.
Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
First published in the United Kingdom in 2003 by Century
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ISBN 9780099453147