TWIN FOIL MIRACLE
of tubes and breathing machines, but in those days there was nothing like that.
“Thankfully, we both survived being born so small and didn’t suffer health problems as a result of our early births.
“We were miracle babies and I hope the story of our survival gives hopes to the parents of premature babies being born now.”
At the time of Heather’s birth, the NHS was in its infancy.
It officially started in Scotland in July 1948 and, while some hospitals would have nurseries for premature babies, the expansion of special care baby units featuring incubators only took off as the 1950s progressed.
Historian Lindsey Reid, a former midwife and author of the book Scottish Midwives: Twentieth Century Voices, said Heather was fortunate to have survived being so small at the time of her birth.
She said: “I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to travel across Scotland as part of my research, interviewing midwives who worked around that time, and there was very little to help premature and very small babies.
“I remember speaking to one former midwife who told me they did not live.
“She told me they could give oxygen to some babies by lying a little funnel close to the baby and attaching the funnel to a rubber tube and then to an oxygen cylinder.
“She said they also had little boxes made by a joiner which were f illed with soft lining that had little pockets on the inside – and they would put hot water bot tles round the baby in the pockets.
“Another midwife, who worked in Shet land, told me they rubbed premature babies down in goose grease and rolled them up in sheep’s wool before encouraging their families to take turns sitting by the fire with their baby to keep them warm.
“During the early part of the 20th century, it was really just the more aff luent mothers who would go into nursing homes to have their babies.
“But post-World War II and following the turning point of the creation of the NHS, there was a push to get pregnant women to have their babies in hospital.
“There are lots of issues that can affect a baby that is born prematurely.
“It sounds very forward thinking for these twin girls to have been wrapped in tinfoil and placed by the f ire – although I hope the babies had more than tinfoil on and that care was taken that the heat from the fire wasn’t reflecting directly onto their skin.”