By Land and By Air

hospital, to find her cleaning the room, and the mother and baby back in their bed.

I did not have many home deliveries but some are interesting. One early morning a man called me up, saying that his wife was sick. There was a lot of so-called ”flu” in the area, and I put a few bottles of medicine in my pocket and started for the house, in no great hurry. When I got there, the husband said, ”I don’t know if you are in time.” I raced into the house, left my overcoat on, and threw my gloves on the floor and delivered the baby which was to have been delivered by section. When I looked around, no one was in the house, so I had to go to the car to get something to tie the cord, etc. When Iwas holding the baby, not knowing what to do, two women and the husband came in. I can assure you they were quite welcome. The next day I went back to see if all was well. When I put my hand on the foot of the bed, I could feel her shoes. I said, ”Do you sleep with your shoes on?” and she said, ”I was up baking bread when I saw you, and did not have time to remove my shoes.”

Another time I was called to see a woman who was ”sick.” There was no time to send her to hospital and I delivered the baby in an extremely poor environment. The baby was only two and a half pounds and I said, ”You have to rush this child to hospital.” When I looked out the window, there was a car waiting, with so much smoke I could hardly see the driver. I said, ”Get a better car, as the baby would be dead before you go two miles.” A new car arrived. If I had been in Charlottetown, I would have called a specialist to continue the required after treatment, but I went ahead and carried on the procedure. The next day in the hospital, I was describing the baby on delivery. I said, “He was black as a nigger.” I looked around and there stood the black intern.

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