Cape Breton's Magazine

help. If he'd come." I said to him, "Would you mind coming in and helping us? You won't see anything"--I had her covered o- ver with a sheet. "Don't be embarrassed. What I'm going to tell you to do, you don't need to look at anything." So, we had to bring her over to the side of the bed, like this, put her buttocks there, and all we wanted was for him to hold her, see. And I-was to give her the chloroform. I said, "You straddle her, and I'll give her the.chloroform, and Dr. Mac? Millan will go to work down here." And he said, "Give her plenty of chloroform, Ja? nie." So I did. I got her pretty well a- sleep. And the fellow, he had ahold of her in the bed. And the doctor started. He got the instriiments, and he had to pull, pull, pull, pull. And when he did get the baby, he went backwards, baby and all. So, we didn't think the baby would live--it was all big bumps all over its head--just the size of an egg, here and there and every? where. And oh, its neck was stretched. He said, "It may live. Take it and do what you can with it, will you?" Then I said to the fellow, "You can go." He never saw any? thing, didn't know yet what happened. So, we got her back in the bed, and of course, we had to wait till she came out of the chloroform. I went out to the kit? chen, and the women were after coming back. Thank the lord they were, because I'd have to give the baby to somebody. And I took the baby out to the kitchen and I got some warm oil, and put the warm oil all over it, and I wrapped it all up in flannel. The oil would sort of soften its little skin, you know. I wiped its eyes and face and mouth and everything, with my solution I had. I gave the baby to one of the sisters. She was very good. And I told her to keep it nice and warm, and to keep--probably little sponges, you know--wiping its mouth, clean its throat out. So I went back and I got the poor mother, to give her a bath, got her fixed up. But oh boy, that was hard. Poor Dr. MacMillan, he was all in, when he got that baby. Oh, I think of some of those women. I think what happened to her--her pains came, and her baby didn't come with them, and then they died out. That's what happened. She didn't have any pains much, any good, after that. See, na? ture kind of stopped. (Did you lose many babies at all?) Lose? No, I never lost--there was one baby we got, was dead, bom dead. So we took it in? to a back room where nobody would know it. And he opened it, and the liver--he weighed the liver--and it weighed as much as a lamb's liver. And it wasn't in the right place. He said, "It's a good thing this baby died," he said. "There'd be some? thing wrong with him if he did live." Love? ly big boy. And then, we had another baby. Oh, we had an awful hard time with that baby, getting that baby. We had to get a couple of doc? tors in. The first doctor came, he got played out, he couldn't do any more work, and he left. Then we got another doctor that was here visiting from the States. Oh, we had an awful time. That woman--we had to do the same with her. And that baby's head was pulled terrible. Beautiful child. And it never urinated, or its bowels never moved. A child, after it's born, the bow- 'X ' Mabou Gardens 945-2386 ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE OF CAPE BRETON Joe's Warehouse The Food Emporium Cape Breton's Newest and Largest Restaurant SPECIALIZING IN AGED PRIME CUTS OF ROAST BEEF & STEAKS & ONE OF THE MOST UNIQUE SALAD BARS IN THE MARITIMES! & Smooth Herman's Lounge You will be sufrounded by a collection of some of Cape Breton's finest antiques. Live Entertainment Nightly 424 Charlotte Street 539-6686 539-0408 RESTAURANT LOUNGE BANQUET FACILITIES ARE AVAILABLE