A neighbour of mine called in the doctor, who after examining her said
she must be got into a Lying-In Hospital at once, as she was in such a
critical condition. She needed to be under medical care all the time;
the doctor expects when the birth takes place there will be twins. The
woman was taken by cab several miles, and after being there two days
was sent home, as the birth was not expected till March, and this was
about the middle of February; but she was to be taken back by February
27, as she is in such a state that the children will have to be removed
before they attain their full size. A few days after she was home, she
was so ill that her doctor got a cab and sent her to another hospital,
as he said if anything occurred when he was not able to get to her, her
life would be lost. She must be where there were doctors in constant
attendance.
After putting her through an examination and bullying her for going
there, she was informed they had no maternity ward, and sent her home
again, and all the time she was in the greatest of pain and vomiting
blood; she is now at home, and will have to be taken to the first
hospital at the end of the week, if nothing happens before.
Now for her circumstances. Her husband has worked for his present
employer for thirteen years, and earns the magnificent sum of 23s. per
week. The conveying of her to hospitals and back the two times has cost
25s., and the husband had to lose a day and a half. When the foreman
asked the master to allow the man to have his pay for the lost time
owing to the expense he had had, he replied: “He will get 30s. when
the job comes off; let him pay it out of that.” This man is a Church
warden and a prominent Church worker and Christian! The husband’s
fellow-workers who earn no more than him, and some of them less, have
had what they call a whip round, and have managed to raise 19s. for him.
Our District Nurse goes in each morning and does what she can for her,
and one morning she asked how she had got ruptured; and she said she
was not sure, but she thought it was when she was at the factory. And
it transpired that her eldest boy is very bright, and he managed to
win a scholarship, but his mother said she could not manage to get the
clothes for him that he ought to have at such a school, and so she got
work at the factory to try and clothe him better. She was only there
two months when she was taken ill and had to leave. (What mothers put
up with for their children!) She has been paying 3d. a week into a Sick
Loan, and Dividing Society, in connection with a Church, but she can
have no help from it, as her illness is through pregnancy.