Remembering Dr. Pamela Davies & her work with premature babies: A personal tribute

Dr. Pamela Davies may not be a household name, but she radically improved the life chances of premature babies. I had direct experience of this – in fact it is largely due to her work that I’m even around to write this. My early weeks, more than 45 years ago, were spent at Hammersmith Hospital in London after my twin sister Jenny and I were born ten weeks premature – weighing in at 3lbs 5oz and 2lbs 12oz. The circumstances of our birth were anything but usual – the doctors discovered mum was carrying twins less than 24 hours earlier. Mum did have her suspicions. ‘What, do you have an elephant in there?’ my grandma had exclaimed the week before. Still, the doctors assured her there was just one very big baby. That is, until an X-ray confirmed otherwise (those were very different times!) Mum’s waters broke when she got home from the X-ray appointment. It was a difficult, dramatic birth – Jen’s was a forceps delivery, mine was a breech birth. We had to be treated in separate neonatal units due to bed availability. Me: taken to the unit in Hammersmith wrapped in foil like a Christmas turkey, Jen: remaining at Perivale Maternity Hospital, where she was to have a rough start with several blue turns. Traditionally, low weight, premature babies like us would not have been fed, and simply left to die. But Dr. Davies showed such babies could be fed successfully – and argued that they should. Thanks to her, we both grew up into adulthood. Sadly, Jenny died in an acci...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Champions Childbirth DW UK Source Type: blogs