Bundles of Joy

It's January 1972, and in the brand new Ashton maternity unit, times have changed since Linda first started serving as a midwife five years ago. Gone are the starched skirts and swaddling clothes: these are the exhilarating days of disposable needles, razors, sheets and even nurses' caps. The midwives' spirits are high, and in spite of the dark cloud of laundry strikes on the horizon, there's the scent of a new era on the cold winter wind.

The patients are changing with the times too: women are starting to refuse enemas and routine shaving, contraception becomes free and more and more fathers are daring to brave the delivery room.

But one thing has stayed the same - giving birth. Year after year, Linda faithfully helps the women of Manchester through their most vulnerable hours, whether it is by giving desperate instructions over the phone, squeezing a young mother's hand in a car park, or by dashing headlong to the rescue of a snowed-in mum-to-be.

As 25-year-old Linda becomes a mother herself, she realises the full weight of what it means to bring children into the world, and she holds each new baby just that little bit tighter. As the midwives of Ashton grow up, so too do the women of Manchester, and Linda soon finds herself delivering the babies of mothers she helped to bring into the world decades earlier.

Through the highs and lows, through the modernisations that transform the hospital and the world outside, Linda's passion for midwifery burns as bright as ever. With 42 years of experience Linda is now one of Britain's longest-serving midwives, but although she has seen generations of women give birth and delivered over 2,000 babies she treats every new arrival like a new miracle.

About the Author

Linda Fairley enrolled as a trainee nurse with Manchester Royal Infirmary at the age of 18. She went on to train as a midwife at St Mary's Infirmary, and later Tameside Hospital in Greater Manchester. She remained there for the next 40 years. Linda lives in Greater Manchester and has two children, Peter and Fiona. In 2010 she was nominated for the Cheshire Woman of the Year Award, held in aid of the NSPCC. She still works two days a week as a community midwife, continuing to serve the women of Tameside. Linda's first book, The Midwife's Here!, was a Sunday Times bestseller.