BOOK LAUNCH: Marie-ann Quin is all set to launch her new book titled Emerald to Pounamu: A Midwife’s Odyssey
From the time Marie-ann Quin was a toddler, she was drawn to mums and babies. In fact her first word, apparently, was “baby”, she recalls.
“If I ever went missing from my home in the cul-de-sac crescent, in Gisborne where I was born, raised and went to school, my mother would find me in the home of a new baby,” Marie said.
The retired midwife is now all set to launch her new book titled Emerald to Pounamu: A Midwife’s Odyssey — a historical novel about the history of midwifery in New Zealand — today, which is International Midwife’s Day.
She will be coming back to Gisborne for a signing session at Muirs Bookstore on May 17, followed by a talk at HB Williams Memorial Library the next day.
Speaking to the Gisborne Herald, Marie-ann says her novel is based around two Irish sisters Bedelia and Veronica, who have lost everything due to the harsh conditions in Ireland at that time.
“They are sponsored to emigrate to New Zealand through a scheme in the 1840s/50s encouraging settlement and bringing potential brides to the colony.”
The novel gathers in German settlers, a mother/daughter midwifery partnership who invite Bedelia into their practice where she learns many useful skills in saving the lives of mothers and babies in this perilous time, Marie-ann says.
Through birth events, the lives of these midwives become intertwined.
“Bedelia has a love interest and their relationship develops throughout the novel causing conflicts, peaks and troughs as the story progresses,” Marie-ann says.
“The tension rises as the culture and expectations on women of the time impinges on her ideas of marriage and her desire to cultivate her vocation as a midwife.
“Veronica’s love interest emerges later in the story and melds with that of her sister, culminating in a happy ending with plenty of scope for another book.”
Recalling her journey as a midwife. She remembers that despite having the desire and focus to work with mums and babies, her family wasn’t able to afford that karitane nurse training I was keen to do in the South Island.
“Therefore, as was the norm in those days in Gisborne, I left my home town to pursue my career. I was accepted to do my hospital-based nurse training at Waikato Hospital at the age of 16.”
After becoming a registered nurse and marrying, she moved to Rotorua with her husband where she mostly worked in the community, but still pursued the dream of working with mothers and babies.
“Over the next few years, between the births of my three daughters, I worked as a district nurse, public health nurse, did shift work in the post and antenatal wards in Waikato hospital, then trained as a Plunket nurse, working in the Te Awamutu and Waipa area until I realised my dream of training as a midwife in 1990.”
During her training she took one month, of three elective months, working in the Gisborne Hospital and travelling up to Te Puia Springs Hospital.
She officially retired from her role as a midwife in March.
“Midwifery is a passion and a vocation rather than a career. The joy I experienced being part of a family welcoming a new member is one of the most awesome, positive and uplifting gifts in life and I had the honour of sharing that with the whole whānau.
“I have conducted over 1200 deliveries and cared for many more mothers and babies both ante and postnatally.”
In her independent midwifery career, spanning 33 years, she covered a large rural and urban area right out to Kawhia, Otorohanga, Arapuni, Te Awamutu, Cambridge and occasionally in Hamilton — Matariki Birthing Unit being mostly her base.
She said her interest in writing was ignited when midwives celebrated 100 years of registration in 2006.
“I had taken creative writing courses and researched the history of midwifery in New Zealand. I also took a course on interviewing at the Alexander Turnbull library and captured some stories from local midwives who had owned private birthing centres around Te Awamutu, some who had immigrated to New Zealand from England and worked with me as a student in Campbell Johnston Maternity in Hamilton.”
Marie said she even had a chance meeting and interviewed a woman whose parents had conducted births in the traditional Māori way, up the East Coast from Gisborne around a century ago.
“I gathered photos and midwifery paraphernalia from different people after an article in the Te Awamutu courier. These I used in my Ballad of Midwifery PowerPoint presentation which I had written for the centennial celebration.
“In one of my long locum periods in Timaru, about five years ago, I started writing my first book in earnest,” she said.
Marie said she thanks her daughter, colleagues, wider family, community and friends in Germany for helping her with her book.