Kay Southard began her training as a nurse in Birmingham in 1960 and since qualifying has never looked back, helping to live thousands of babies over six decades
When it comes to babies, midwife Kay Southard has always delivered – for the past 64 years. The dedicated carer’s staggering life story could be a script from the TV hit Call The Midwife. But it may be a little too feel-good even for the heartwarming hit BBC series.
Kay has helped bring thousands of babies safely into the world and, amazingly, at the age of 82, is still helping mums. She volunteers at her town’s birthing centre and jokes: “I meet the ‘babies’ I have delivered having their babies, and the mothers say. ‘You are still here’. I see mums and their grown-up children in town when I’m shopping. The first baby I delivered was in 1965 so their mums will be my age. They always have a catch-up.”
Kay has put others first since she was 15 and left home in Much Marcle, Herefordshire, to help care for twins whose mum had died. She has been in employment “non-stop” ever since. She began training as a nurse in 1960 in Birmingham on £2 for a 48-hour week, sharing a flat with three others. Kay still keeps in contact with them. After four years there, her 48-year full-time career as midwife began in earnest.
She trained in London and cycled to appointments, just like characters in the BBC show, which will have a Christmas special and is likely to return for series 14 in 2025. “It was just like Call The Midwife, we did not have any scans. Mums came in and had twins but we did not know that until they arrived. You would be on your own on a bike.
“I’d cycle around Clapham, past Wandsworth Prison, around Balham, I worked at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, we used to do all the stops on the Northern Line. I’ve delivered for doctors, other midwives, ordinary people mainly, the famous ones were in the private units. I must have delivered hundreds and hundreds of babies over the years, it will be thousands really, won’t it?”
Kay qualified in 1966 and, after 10 years in London, moved to High Wycombe, Bucks. She spent the last 27 years of her career in Crowborough, East Sussex, and officially retired 11 years ago at 71. She says: “There was no break in service as I didn’t get married, I didn’t have time – I was too busy working.”
She still does vital work as a volunteer three days a week at Crowborough birthing centre, East Sussex, and pops in at weekends “in case they need any help”. She passes on her knowledge to midwife recruits and even guided an expectant mum who was in labour “on the doorstep”.
She says: “I do breastfeeding guidance, get their notes ready, clean up on the labour wards, do tea and toast for the mums and even the dads on the birthing unit. I will keep on going as long as I enjoy it. I see old colleagues and meet up for lunch and at Christmas. I know 64 years in the NHS is a long time, but I don’t think about it really. I just love it, I am just cracking on.”
And, for a spot of relaxation, she opens her laptop for a dramatic stroll down memory lane with Call The Midwife. She says: “I do love to watch it.” Perhaps surprisingly, an even older woman is still caring for patients. At 84, Daisy Richards is believed to be Britain’s oldest working nurse.
Daisy worked in a Surrey hospital before moving to Bangor Hospital in North Wales in the 1970s. She became a district nurse and midwife on the Isle of Anglesey in 1976. She won bronze at this month’s Wales Care Awards in the outstanding service category and gold in dignity in care.
