Читать книгу Hatches, Matches and Despatches - Jenny Paschall - Страница 22

EVERY year, around eighty women go into labour on the New York subways, of which six or seven give birth on the platforms.

MAGDALENA Deskur and Maxine Arthur both work for Sports Illustrated Magazine. Although they are competitive, sporty women, who like to win, they had no idea they would be racing against each other – to give birth. They met in their obstetrician’s office, where Maxine was found to be in labour, but nothing much seemed to be happening for Magdalena, who had thought she was in labour too. However, by the time Maxine had arrived at the admissions desk of the Beth Israel Hospital in New York, Magdalena’s labour had started, and she was ready for admission at the same hospital. They went to their rooms in the same hallway, and their obstetrician began his own race – between the rooms of the two colleagues. At 6.19 p.m. Maxine gave birth to her seven-pound two-ounce son. Thirty-five minutes later, Magdalena produced a seven-pound-four-ounce girl. Both babies measured twenty inches. Exhausted Dr Swersky declared a photo finish.

IF Mary Ellen Allen had taken the time to have regular antenatal checks, the chances are that her daughter, Shadonna Allen, would never have been born. When Mary visited Dr James Lee, he discovered that her baby was growing outside Mrs Allen’s Fallopian tubes, and had embedded itself in her abdominal cavity. As the unusual pregnancy was well advanced, however, he decided it was best to wait and see if the baby could survive. The chance was one in 200,000, but Shadonna was delivered eight weeks prematurely, weighing in at a tiny one pound and nine ounces.

THE heaviest single birth on record was a boy weighing twenty-two pounds and eight ounces who was born to Signora Carmelina Fedele of Aversa, Italy in 1955.