So there we were, sitting on base. A fairly quiet night up to that point. The radio opened up and we got the call that everybody dreads:

"Maternity call"

It was in a small town a bit north of us that we also cover. Off we went, not happy.

On the way we got a message on our computer thingy. The birth was imminent.

We looked at each other: "Oh, bugger", the ambulance sped up a bit. Luckily the local responder car was ahead of us but not by much.

We saw his car as we entered the town. Pulling to a stop we headed in doors to find him with the mother. The birth was indeed imminent and the baby was crowning.

Righty-ho then. We all got busy. Baby was eased out, cord was clamped and cut and a full set of observations was done on mum and baby. We had asked for a midwife to attend but she was coming from about twenty miles away and they don't give them blue lights

All was well and good and now we were just waiting. Waiting for (a) the midwife and (b) the placenta. Didn't know which was coming first.

About half an hour later we got the answer. The placenta was the winner. Unfortunately it slithered down between the cushions on the couch. We retrieved it ok though.

Anyway, mum and baby are both well. We left them in the care of the midwife. A good job all round

At the other end of the shift came a job that in many ways was the opposite. A woman called us to her husband who was not at all well. Very low blood pressure, wheezy and not really with it. He was 91 but still, he wasn't well.

It was one of those jobs where, if you are the driver, you walk in and walk straight out again. The reason you do that is that this person needs to be in hospital now. If you have a couple of experienced people, as we were tonight, the other person will be checking on the person and making him ready for travel.

Got him on the ambulance and got his wife in the front with me. We chatted on the way about not very much. Me trying to keep her mind off things.

I would be surprised if he survives, to be honest. He has had a good innings though.

The night was balanced. We helped someone into the world and probably eased someones passage out of it.

Karma