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Loveday Street Hospital

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wendy
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The day I was born my Dad had a knock that evening. It was a policeman who said he had to come to the hospital urgently as my Mum may not survive the night.
He had to ask neighbours in Reddings Lane to take my 6 year old sister and 3 year old brother.I don't know how he got to Loveday St hospital as I am sure they did not have a car then.
Me and my twin brother had been delivered about 1pm but when my Mum was on the post natal ward a fellow patient noticed her hand showing under the screen. She had apparently had a fit and fallen right off the bed.
She was in a coma initially but came through and was nursed by a wonderful nurse by the appropriate name of Nurse Friend who she stayed in touch with for years.
She had gone two weeks late with twins which were not always diagnosed in those days and developed severe eclampsia.
I was 4lb and my brother 6lb so I went into an incubator.

When she came home my Gran said 'You'll not rear that one!' very helpfully so my Mum said!!:laughing:

I nearly repeated the situation in 1989 at Sorrento as I also developed severe eclampsia and had been pregnant with twins but had miscarried one of them at 12 weeks.
George was delivered safely by caesarean and the sister was a Trinidadian friend from Ronkswood where I'd worked 13 years earlier.
I was an older mum then though not these days and the happiest in the world.
 
hi loveday...what a wonderful story about how you and your brother came into the world...so pleased that your mom survived her ordeal though as in those days things were not so medically advanced as now...sorry to read about the loss of one of your babies but what a blessing that george arrived safely :)

lyn
 
I didn't exactly lose a baby lyn it was a miscarriage and was weird as I remained pregnant with George. My GP was a bit baffled TBH not something that happens very often.The twin had not developed and frankly I was just relieved to still be pregnant as we had been trying for years.
I went on to then have two more babies quite quickly so had three under three and a half although reading the interesting newspaper cutting someone has posted one mother had had 8 pregnancies by the age of 26 and that was not at all unusual back then !!!
I loved the pictures in that article and I noticed the canvas cot in one.
We used to have to make those up when I worked in Worcester from freshly laundered canvasses fitted onto metal frames. Quite an art! They just seemed so cosy unlike the probably more practical 'fish tank' like acrylic cots that came in later and are still used today.
 
My mother was born there in October 1933 and I was born there in September 1953, though neither of us were expected to be problem or difficult births as far as I know.
 
I was born here in 1965, mom was referred there because I was breech, after a very long and difficult labour I arrived all 5lb of me! She remembers the doctor putting me beside her and I folded up like I was still inside!! She told me about the narrow delivery beds and the earlier picture confirms this, she also said when they took her back to the ward she was allowed a cigarette and a cup of tea!!!
 
sarah.mccarthy said:
I was born here in 1965, mom was referred there because I was breech, after a very long and difficult labour I arrived all 5lb of me! She remembers the doctor putting me beside her and I folded up like I was still inside!! She told me about the narrow delivery beds and the earlier picture confirms this, she also said when they took her back to the ward she was allowed a cigarette and a cup of tea!!!
Click to expand...
hi sarah and welcome to the forum..thank you for sharing your moms memories of loveday st hospital...enjoy the forum

lyn
 
I am closing this thread for editing and to re-focus it on the Loveday Street Hospital. I shall move posts about Loveday Street (the street) to an existing thread about the street. Below is the thread about the street. Viv.

Loveday Street

We have several threads about Loveday Street hospital but none exclusively about the street itself. Even the thread entitled Loveday Street Birmingham is about births at the hospital. So I am starting this thread which is for the recording of the street’s history and memories as I can’t find...
birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
Hello! I was born at Loveday Street in May 1946, a two month premature baby, low weight and breach delivery. My Mother spoke fondly of Sister Prosser and the wonderful care we both received.
I have subsequently trained as a Sick Children’s Nurse at BCH and also as a midwife at BMH .

Anthea
 
I was born in Loveday Street Maternity Hospital in February 1951. I am pleased to see all of the photos of that era which will help me when I continue with my family history. Mum died at the age of 98 and almost all of my relatives are now dead so I can’t ask why I was not born at home. I know that Mum had a lot of trouble conceiving me but nothing else.
 
see also link below

loveday st maternity hospital

Hiya all, just a quickie. Quite a few of my recentish reles are shown as born at the above hospital. was it part of the old general hospital in bham city centre ? year would be 1920's-1930's. steve.
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
Photo a bit warped - copied from ebay. This may be an earlier missing photo from this thread of the maternity hospital and a close-up of the entrance. I'm not sure what's written on the plaque. Looks to me that the left-had side was an addition to the main building (centre and right). There are two nurses in the top windows - maybe a staffroom?

Screenshot_20240421_102051_Chrome.jpg
 

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I was due to be born in Sorrento Nursing Home in September 1954 but my mother developed toxaemia/pre-eclampsia and was admitted in about May 1954. They tried to induce me in August but it was unsuccessful so Jo Jordan was called off the golf course on a Sunday morning to deliver me by Caesarian. She then had a stroke and was transferred to the QE. I was discharged when I eventually reached 4lbs in weight and went to live for two months with our next door neighbours until my mother was discharged. She remembered watching the Halfords Building on Lancaster Circus go up in flames from there.
 
Thank you for the posts and photographs. Without them, I would not have been able to see where I was born in 1963. Coincidently, I worked in the catering department at Sorrento Maternity and Monyhull hospitals from 1986 to 1988.
 
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