48-Year-Old Mum's High-Risk Delivery | Midwives

Ward 1 at the Birmingham Women's Hospital. Here, the midwives look after mums who have to stay in hospital when their pregnancies become complicated. Most of the midwives work all around the hospital, but Bridget Egan works exclusively on the ward. She's been a qualified midwife for 46 years. I tell her to cut her hours down, but she doesn't. But she won't go home. She won't go home. She can't even get her to go home on time, let alone cut her hours down. It shows how good the career is, because she's still here. That's true. I don't know what else I'd be if I wasn't a midwife, because, actually, I've wanted to be a nurse since I was age six, when I had my own appendix out. I enjoy trying to help people to get through, sometimes, some of the traumas and some of the worries. Oh, isn't he just gorgeous? The average age of mums-to-be is increasing. In the past decade, the number of women having babies in their 40s has almost doubled. In years gone past, when I first became a midwife, people did have their babies young. Actually, we're getting a lot more older mothers now than we actually ever did. This morning, Bridget will be looking after a new arrival on the ward, an older mum who's been referred by the diabetic team. She's a diabetic. Is she IVF? Yeah, IVF. I thought she was. She's 48. 48? Mm-hm. Is it atemis? Atemis. Is it OK if I come and pop you a little trace of your baby? Yeah. Right. I just need to listen to your little baby first and locate where baby is. So you've waited a long time for this baby? Yeah, for a long time. For a long time to have a baby, yeah. This must be magic now that you're having a little one, is it? It's really exciting that we are having him. Must be lovely. We have been waiting so long, I think, that the excitement right now, it's uncontrollable. I know. And we become, both of us, completely overwhelmed with emotions. I know. Baby's heart is there, as you can see. And I might be recruiting your husband over there in a minute to hold this on. Is he good at acting as a midwife? He is. He is? OK. University lecturers Artemis and Bill met at work when they were both in their 40s. Are you happy to do that? Are you sure? They found out that Artemis was pregnant just a couple of months after Bill's 50th birthday. Are you all right with that? Any questions? Thank you. I think we had so many questions at the beginning of the pregnancy. Yeah. At some point, the consultant said, oh, you seem to be really very anxious. And that's understandable, to be anxious, isn't it? Because at this age, you probably feel yourself that, you know, you worry about more things than you might do if you were, like, 21. I think I'm sure that's true. He's a busy baby, this baby of yours, Bill. Yeah. I think you'll be kept on your toes running round after him. It's a job to keep him on the trace, huh? I do remember the first IVF baby, and the first thoughts were, you know, is it going to be safe or are the babies going to be normal? Because if we play around with nature, I suppose we all used to think maybe this isn't going to be good. But I think, looking at it over the last, you know, sort of maybe 10, 15 years, I think that it's amazing now that people can have babies who never would have been able to have a baby before. At the Birmingham Women's Hospital, the upper age limit for IVF treatment is 43. So, at 48, Artemis had to seek treatment from a private clinic. It wasn't very encouraging, talking to gynaecologists. They were not very positive that we would become parents. We were not really encouraged to do that, but I think we were very much determined to have this baby. I'm 50 now. I feel that I'm pretty energetic and I could cope with a baby. I trust. A bit concerned what will happen in about 18 or 20 years' time, when I'll be sort of 70, but by then maybe the child, maybe George, will be doing his own thing and won't need me around. I don't care about my age because I do know that the baby and the child, what they need more is love, and I can give this love. Oh, bless you, lovely. Have you tried anything for the pain? 48-year-old Artemis has a family history of diabetes and has been admitted to the ward for further monitoring. Today, specialist diabetic midwife Juliet Webster has her test results. Knock, knock. Hello. I'm all right. How are you? Do you want a hand up there? Are you OK? I'm very tired. I'm not surprised. We are classing it as gestational diabetes. What we would recommend is, after you've had your baby, we'd want to test the baby's blood sugars just to make sure they're OK, just for the first 24 hours. And how do we see his blood sugar levels? Is it like the same? It's the same type of thing, where we prick the baby's heel, and we take a drop of blood from the baby's heel. He won't hurt? I can't say it's not going to hurt because it is a prick of the heel, but they don't remember these things. I know it's terrible, but if you have any worries about anything, just let the staff know, OK? When they know nothing about me? Yeah. I'd love to say it's all natural, OK? I've seen this programme about the penguins in Antarctica. I mean, it seems fairly straightforward. That's penguins. For Artemis, being diagnosed as a gestational diabetic means her baby could be at risk in the last stages of her pregnancy. Gestational diabetes, usually for most women, is a temporary form of diabetes, and once they've had their baby, hopefully everything will go back to normal. But for the pregnancy itself, there's a risk of stillbirth later in the pregnancy, and then there's a risk of the baby having low blood sugars once it's born. Due to the risks to her baby, Artemis' delivery will have to be brought forward. You'll be fine. You look a little bit scared. I am a little bit. All of a sudden... Well, it's OK to be cheerful about an event that's in the far future, but when it's in the near future, you've run out of room to manoeuvre. That's a strange thought. Anyway, we will have to go through it. OK, listen, I'll do that, Sam. OK, I'll send her down now. Today, 48-year-old Artemis and 50-year-old Bill will become parents for the first time. Two weeks ahead of their due date. If you can get all your stuff together, we'll get the porter to come up and we'll take you down. All right, OK, hon. All right, thank you. I guess it's normal to be anxious, especially when you just have explained the risks of a C-section. Artemis is being delivered early because she has gestational diabetes and her baby could be at risk of being stillborn if she went to full term. You're going to feel a sharp scratch where my finger is, OK? It's going to sting a little bit. You're doing very well, OK? I think with all the equipment around and all the staff around, they're going to be really anxious. I think once we settle her and we lie her down and we're talking to her and distract her, then she'll take her mind off it, she'll start to relax a little bit more. You need to stop thinking about it. Just relax. Pretend you're lying on the beach, OK? The sun's coming down on you, you've got a good book to read, a glass of your favourite drink, whatever that may be, a nice cocktail, fruity cocktail. Just forget what they're doing now. OK? I sometimes think when people are, like, over 45, I don't think I would like to have a baby at that age, but it's hard to say because I had my children when I was younger and maybe we can't actually know how they feel, how they're so desperately want a child. I'm not so sure if people realise how hard it is to look after a little baby and what commitment they're making when they have a baby at that age. She's touching his butt. I just feel like the baby, he's been touched, he's been touched. Are you going to see your baby really soon? Oh, really? OK. Ouch. Oh, he's been difficult. He's been a little bit difficult. Oh, my God, he didn't want to go out, or does he? Get his arms out there. Is it definitely a he? Yes. Definitely a he? Definitely a he. Oh, my God. If you're not squeamish, I can just see his legs over the top. Just sort of like... Ed doesn't want to come out. There we go. There we are. Oh, my God. Congratulations. Oh, my goodness. He's holding on to everything. Look up, look up. Oh, my goodness. Congratulations. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my God, he's great. He's great. Start to give him the force that's just on his head to pull it out. He's a good size. Yeah. And he's beautiful, isn't he? I never thought that he would be so beautiful. Why not? He looks fantastic. He looks great. I don't know, I didn't check. There we go. My baby, baby. Just relax, just relax. He's already had a whiff. He's so nice and calm. They're always calm when they do skin to skin because they go back to being able to hear Mum's heart. So they think they're nice and safe. Oh, my God. Congratulations. Thank you. How are you? I'm very well, actually. Yeah? Yeah. So he's just due to have his blood sugar taken. Is it OK if I do that? He will wake up. It might make him cry. Right then. Oh, hello, George. It is lovely to meet you, at last. Have you been waiting a while? So how much do you expect him that he should have? It should be higher than two. OK. OK, so it's just a little squeeze of his heel there. OK, here we go. Oh, he didn't cry. 3.1. Perfect. Perfect. OK. George's blood sugar levels will be monitored for the next 24 hours and the midwives will keep an eye on him for a while. How are you feeling about being a mum now? Oh, it's wonderful. He cried yesterday. Yeah? Do you feel a bit more confident now he's here? Yeah, but I will need some help, I know. Yeah? Is there anything specific that worries you? I'm worried how he breathes and I want to hear him breathing. Yeah. But I guess I will get used to it and then I will relax more around him. That's perfectly normal to worry about things like that. It really is, you know, and it sounds perfect to me. Unfortunately, crying's a good sign. When people are older and have been waiting for a long time and gone through various things to try and get pregnant, I think the baby is then just more precious for them. Sometimes they can just be, sometimes a bit overly anxious, but I don't see it as being a bad thing. I'd rather have an overly anxious mum than one that wasn't really bothered. Just know the baby's going to be one truly loved and looked after. I'm very cautious when I touch him, of course, and when I hold him, but I think I'm going to get used to it very, very soon. Oh, it is so wonderful to have him here. So wonderful. It's a month after baby George was born. Artemis and Bill are beginning to adjust to their new life as parents. You always dream to have a nice baby holding, you know, holding a baby in your arms, kissing the baby, playing with the baby, but, you know, all the rest, the care, the responsibility, it's quite a lot. It's quite a lot, so... I don't think that the difficulties would have been different if we were younger. In an ideal world, we would have had George four or five years ago. Yeah. But I don't think we feel too old to be parents. No. I tell you, we're not too old to have a baby. Whether we're too old to have a child, when he starts running around and breaking things, and older, when he starts swearing at us and things like that, then we'll know whether we're too old. We think that we would like to have a second child and have this experience for a second time. Probably in 2014, we would like to try to have a second one, so that he will have a brother or a sister and he won't be alone.