Snippets 14

As a fourth year medical student I went into the Coombe maternity hospital to do my midwifery. We had to work in pairs and after some experience in the hospital we were sent out on the district to attend home confinements with the help of a local midwife. On one of my early cases the midwife was not there so I did the delivery myself. When the patient was about to deliver instead of a head a large white mass appeared getting bigger by the second. After a few seconds panic I realised I had to do something about it, so with my scissors I cut around the solid matter I could feel, which proved to be the babies neck. As I was doing this, the midwife arrived and immediately said that the baby was being born under a caul, a very rare thing where there are two separate membranes around the infant instead of one. That around the head is separate unto, and has to be cut away exactly as I did. The baby was born perfectly normally otherwise. The midwife advised that I should wash the piece of membrane, the caul, thoroughly and preserve it and said that it could be sold to any sailor for a large sum of money as it was a common belief that the owner would never drown and that he would be very lucky. I washed and dried it and folded it into a small parcel, around one quarter of an inch square, and I still have it after sixty years and I must say I have been very lucky throughout my life.