Title: Calling for Help
Fandom: Call the Midwife
Rating: G
Length: 925
Summary: This isn't the first time Henry Greening has had to summon a midwife.

Barbara Gilbert hurried to answer the ringing phone.  “Nonnatus House, midwife speaking.”

“Nurse, it’s Stella Baxter, she’s got another three weeks to go, but she’s just like my Annie when she ‘ad our second, I think you’d better come,” a male voice said.

“Yes of course,” Barbara answered.  “And you are?”

“’Enry Greening, ‘er brother.  You won’t be long, will yer?  I can stay for a bit, but I’ve got to get to work.  I’m on the late shift, you see.”

“That’s fine, Mr Greening.  We’ll come straight over.  If you have to leave, just make sure we can get in.”

“Will do!”

Barbara found Sister Evangelina packing her bag ready for her afternoon rounds and related the phone call to her.  “I suppose Mrs Baxter might be panicking because it’s her first, but her brother was quite insistent.  I’ll go round now.”

“I’ll come with you.  They’re not a family who would react in that way without good reason,” Sister Evangelina replied.

When the two midwives reached the house, Henry Greening let them in and then said, “Right, I’m off to work now.  Mum’s been calling round every afternoon, so she’ll be here in a bit.”

Sister Evangelina entered and called out to Stella, “Let’s just get you lying down, Mrs Baxter, and we’ll have a quick check and see how you’re getting on.”

She took out her stethoscope and listened to the baby’s heart for a couple of minutes and then said, “Nurse Gilbert, could you come and have a listen, please.”

Barbara did as requested, and then looked at the nun and raised her eyebrows.  “I think you’d better pop down the road and call an ambulance,” Sister Evangelina said.

As Barbara left, Stella said in a small voice, “What did you hear?  Is there something wrong with my baby?  Is her heart okay?”

Sister Evangelina smiled reassuringly, “There’s nothing wrong with baby.  The problem is, we could hear two hearts.  Have you been told you were expecting twins?”

“No.  But surely someone would have known?”

“Not necessarily.  Sometimes one twin can hide behind the other.  Now, it’s not unusual for twins to be born early and you are definitely showing the first signs of labour.  But because there are two of them they will be smaller than most babies, so a hospital delivery will be the best in this case.”

Barbara arrived back to say the ambulance was on its way.

Stella bit her lip.  “I’m not ready,” she said.  “I’m not ready to have one baby, let alone two.”

“You’ll be fine,” Sister Evangelina said.  “You know, this brings me back to when your mum had you, right in the middle of the Blitz.”  Turning to Barbara, she continued:


“One evening in early 1942, there was a tremendous thundering on the front door.  Sister Monica Joan answered it and a small boy practically fell inside.

‘You’ve got to come quick,’ he said. ‘My mum’s about to have the baby.’

‘And what’s your mother’s name?’ Sister Monica Joan asked.

‘Mum.’

‘And what’s your name?’ Sister Monica Joan added.

‘It’s ‘Enry.  ‘Enry Greening.’

‘But you live quite a long way away, Henry.  Why didn’t you telephone?’

‘Couldn’t miss.  It’s gorn.’

‘What’s gone?’

‘The telephone box.  ‘Itler bombed it last night.’

By that point I had grabbed my bag, so Sister Monica Joan and I, accompanied by little Henry Greening, ran down the steps and took our bicycles.  We balanced Henry on the seat of Sister Monica Joan’s bicycle, while she stood upright to pedal, and he held on to her.  We had not gone far when the air raid siren sounded.

The ARP warden tried to stop us going further, but Sister Monica Joan told him she had more important things to do and Herr Hitler was not about to stop her from doing them.  The Warden told her she might be killed, but she looked at him firmly said ‘There is a time to be born, and a time to die, but it is not up to me to decide when they shall be.’  To be fair, the Warden had encountered Sister Monica Joan before, and had been equally unsuccessful on those occasions too.  We did however arrange for him to take care of Henry and cycled on.

By the time we arrived, Mrs Greening had been helped into the space under the stairs and the neighbour had taken the other two children to the shelter.  It was very cramped as the three of us huddled under the stairs.  Fortunately it was an easy birth, although even so we hardly registered the blast which took out the front window.  I’m not sure which I was more glad to hear that night, the all-clear or baby’s first cry.

It was obvious it wasn’t safe for Mrs Greening to stay in the house, so we borrowed a wheelchair, and pushed her up the street to her sister’s, the baby wrapped in a shawl.  Strangely we could just see a couple of stars in the sky that night.  And Mrs Greening looked up and said, ‘That’s what I’m going to call my baby – Stella – because we got to see a star the night she was born.’"



As Sister Evangelina finished the story they heard the sound of the siren as the ambulance approached.  Barbara ran down to let the men in, while the nun squeezed Stella’s hand.

“And if your mum can cope with giving birth to you in the middle of the Blitz I’m jolly sure you can cope with giving birth to twins.”