Midwife Grace Pillay has lost count of how many babies she's delivered, but says the number is in the thousands. Photo / Supplied
Midwife Grace Pillay has lost count of how many babies she's delivered, but says the number is in the thousands. Photo / Supplied
Content warning: This article mentions stillbirth and other pregnancy complications.
There's nothing quite like holding a newborn baby as it takes its very first breath. That's what Grace Pillay has done thousands of times in her 51-year career as a midwife.
"That happiness is incomparable," she says. "From the time you hear that first heartbeat until you deliver the baby . . . Oh, I tell you, that is such a special moment for me."
In more than half a century of delivering babies, she hasn't kept a running total, but at a rate of six births a month, and many more in her early years, the numbers quickly stack up.
The 74-year-old, who became a registered nurse in 1971 and a qualified midwife in 1976, retired from midwifery last month, her second attempt to put her feet up. Her first attempt nine years ago left her feeling "empty" and, learning that there was a shortage of midwives in New Zealand, she decided to go back to the job.
Epidurals and ultrasounds weren't around when midwife Grace Pillay began delivering babies 51 years ago. Photo / 123rf
Pillay spent the majority of her career in Wellington, most recently at Hutt Hospital, but began her nursing and midwifery career in Malaysia where she was raised.
The differences between the two countries were stark. Labouring Malaysian mothers would ride up to the hospital on motorbikes to give birth. Pillay and her colleagues were delivering about 20 babies each shift.
In New Zealand that number dropped to around six babies a month, and here she cared for mothers from the start of their pregnancies until some weeks after the birth.
Pillay began midwifery at a time where things such as epidurals and ultrasounds weren't used for pregnant women. In spite of modern medicine, she is struck by how many more births end up with complications now, something she puts down to poorer health and a greater socio-economic divide.
Pillay recalls one tragic case of a young, single woman in her care who had little family support and simply didn't show up for an appointment one day. Pillay tried and failed for weeks to contact her. When the woman resurfaced a month later, her waters having broken at 32 weeks gestation, the baby had died in the womb.
"There's nothing that you can do, you just have to pick up the pieces and support her as much as you can."
Pillay was able to stay connected with the woman and deliver a live baby for her later on. That was the only stillbirth Pillay has had to be a part of, though there have been other emergencies in her time.
She remembers a call from a labouring woman's partner at 4am, telling her the woman's waters had broken but, he said, "there's something coming out that looks like an intestine".
Pillay immediately recognised the signs of umbilical cord prolapse, a condition which can be potentially fatal to the baby.
"I just had no more words to say. I was thinking whether to send help, whether it would be quicker to send an ambulance . . . I told him 'get her into the car right now and bring her straight down to the hospital.'"
She booked an emergency operating room and called an obstetrician and anaesthetist, and the baby was delivered alive a short time later.
There have also been plenty of uncomplicated births, including one woman whose babies were all 5kg or more at birth.
Grace Pillay has delivered thousands of babies in her career as a midwife. Photo / John Sefton
Another birth went smoothly despite discovering that after the baby was delivered "there was someone else inside". Having no ultrasound back then, the woman hadn't known she was carrying twins.
Some of the babies Pillay has delivered have remained a part of her life. She is sometimes invited to birthdays, called "grandma", and just the other day had a woman at the supermarket call out to her to let her know her son, who Pillay delivered, had just turned 21.
"Looking back I think I was in the right job. It was very rewarding for me. I have had really, really hard, difficult, busy moments but I never broke down," she says. "Even on the busiest day, on the most difficult day, I stayed and did my dash and came back."
For Pillay is it was "the most beautiful job".
"On my last day when I left, I left with my head held high, heart full of satisfaction. I have given my best."
