Rushed to Ninewells Hospital “bleeding everywhere” as she went into labour, Louise Myers did not expect her baby to be born.
Complications arose as the placenta was the wrong way around, but due to the work of NHS staff, Abbie was born alive and well.
That was 40 years ago, on the 30th anniversary of the health service. The family were given a commemorative cup, as were all mothers giving birth that day.
The memento has special importance to the family and they have kept it ever since.
Abbie’s birth featured in The Courier four decades ago as part of coverage of the NHS milestone.
To mark its 70th anniversary – and Abbie’s 40th birthday – the family are expressing their gratitude to the NHS.
Louise, who was 22-years old at the time of her daughter’s birth, said: “When I had Abbie on the day, everything went wrong. It was an emergency.
“We had to be rushed through my an ambulance from Arbroath to Ninewells, which was quite new at the time.
“On two occasions the ambulance had to stop because they though I was about to give birth in there.
“The placenta was coming first and it was a time before scans so that would have been detected now.
“I was all set up for a section but another doctor managed to move the placenta and within minutes I just wanted to push, so Abbie was born fairly quickly after that.
“I had no knowledge at all that the NHS was celebrating their 30-year anniversary but someone came in the afternoon asking if I’d be happy having my photo taken and that they were going to give mugs to all the babies that were born on that day.
“I was ecstatic. It was really nice, actually.”
The cup inscribed “Presented by the Secretary of State for Scotland” remains an important family heirloom.
Louise’s youngest daughter, Gemma, is now training to be a nurse.
Louise said: “We wanted to keep the mug and it’s been round all the houses in the family as we moved around.
“The NHS is in crisis at the moment. There’s all this talk about paying taxes directly to it and I would go for that. We owe a lot to the NHS.
“If you look at countries that don’t have access to healthcare, women and children are dying all the time because of things that can be avoided.
“That shouldn’t be happening in today’s world.”
Abbie said: “If it wasn’t for the NHS, both of us would have died. Mum was haemorrhaging.”
Abbie gave birth to two of her three daughters at home and can’t fault NHS Tayside in making her wish a reality.
She added: “They were beautiful births. Everyone was around and came in and out. It was just amazing.
“It was fantastic that I was able to do that. We can’t take the NHS for granted.”
