A mother has thanked a retired midwife she met by chance at church who helped save her baby’s life after spotting danger signs.
Paula Paterson and her family were attending a community Christmas lunch at Dalziel’s St Andrew’s Parish Church in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, on Saturday when she got chatting to Shona Ferguson and confided that she had not felt her baby move that morning.
The retired midwife was alarmed and after consulting staff at University Hospital Wishaw, she drove Mrs Paterson, who was 41 weeks pregnant, to the hospital.
Medical staff found that the baby’s heart rate was dangerously low and decided to induce Mrs Paterson and Lacey-Mae was born weighing 6lbs 10oz at around 9pm.
- REVIEW OF THE YEAR: A tale of two cities as Glasgow and Edinburgh both battled crises at their flagship hospitals
Liann Weir, who was also at the church, came to the hospital to act as birthing partner as Mrs Paterson’s husband had to look after the couple’s three other children, aged eight, six and three.
Mrs Paterson said: “I dread to think what might have happened if Shona hadn’t taken me to hospital. I mean, what are the chances of meeting a midwife at the church?
“It was lovely having Liann there to help when Lacy-Mae was born. “I thought I was going to be there all by myself.”
Mother and baby are both doing well and are now back at their home in Motherwell.
Mrs Weir, who works for CrossReach, the operating name of the Church’s social care council, said: “Paula got chatting to Shona and told her she had not felt the baby move that whole morning.
“Warning signals immediately started flashing and Shona called the hospital to speak to midwives whom she used to work with and decided that she was going to drive her there herself.”
- READ MORE: Scots ambulance staff taking more time off sick due to mental health issues
She added: “This was the most emotional, humbling and utterly astounding experience to be a part of.
“I did not think the day would end with me as a birthing partner.
“I am utterly convinced that things would have been very different if Paula had not walked into church on Saturday – a few days before we celebrate the birth of another baby in a stable.”
The retired midwife and Mrs Weir are both Church of Scotland elders. Mrs Weir returned to the hospital to take mother and baby home on Sunday afternoon and paid tribute to the “brilliant” midwives.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel