1960s maternity nurses who were first in Britain to get walkie-talkies

Call the midwife! The 1960s maternity nurses who were the first in Britain to get walkie-talkies so they could speak to doctors at mothers’ bedsides

  • The incredible images show a midwife speaking into her walkie-talkie as she rides around Leicester in 1965
  • Another snap shows two nurses receiving instructions from Manchester’s supervisor of midwives in 1966
  • Seventy Manchester Corporation midwives were said to be the first in Britain to have the new radios
  • Were you one of the walkie-talkie midwives? Or a relative of yours? Email: [email protected]

Spectacular retro pictures have revealed how walkie-talkies were used by midwives in the 1960s to speed up their work and speak to doctors by mothers’ bedsides.

The striking images show a midwife speaking into her walkie-talkie as she rides her bicycle around Leicester in 1965.

Another picture shows two nurses being briefed by Manchester’s supervisor of midwives, who operated the master set, as they went on their regular rounds in 1966. 

Other striking shots show a model showing off the midwives overcoat and matching hat which were designed as ‘get about’ clothes for the travelling midwife in 1968.

Seventy Manchester Corporation midwives were said to be the first in Britain to have the new radios which were part of a plan to speed up service and ensure the midwife could call for a doctor, ambulance, or the maternity flying squad in an emergency without leaving the patient’s bedside.

The walkie talkie unit, weighing only 14 ounces, provided immediate contact with a central control station day and night.

Midwives would sleep with them beside their pillow and carry them around the city – always ready to respond to an emergency. 

Gone were the days when a midwife had to leave her patient to find a public telephone, or ask the father-to-be to make a call.

Two nurses in Manchester are briefed on their rounds by Manchester’s ‘Radio Midwife’ – Miss Eileen France, the city’s supervisor of midwives who operated the master set. Manchester midwives were the first to receive the two-way radios as part of a £7,500 plan to speed up service. Some midwives would use a car but many would travel by bicycle to home births

As well as the walkie-talkie changing the midwives’ profession in the Sixties, a new ‘get about’ uniform was designed to make travelling easier. For the first time, travelling midwives were allowed to wear trousers as part of their uniform. This October 1968 shot shows a model wearing the midwives’ overcoat in grey worsted flannel with a blue collar and matching hat. Significant medical advances brought more changes in the 1970s, including antenatal testing and ultrasound monitoring, along with higher levels of intervention during births, such as drugs to induce labour


  • Russian model faces charges after letting ‘youths’ fondle…


    Incredible moment hammerhead shark suddenly bites scuba…


    Stranded mother and her daughter, seven, are dramatically…

Share this article

At a patient’s bedside, Sister Norma Bentley uses the pocket-size two-way radio. The nurses were originally trained on how to use the radios by ambulance staff. The walkie-talkies allowed midwives to communicate with other medical professionals without leaving the patient or having to send the father-to-be out to relay a message

The walkie-talkie radio sets were also used by the 37 midwives in the city of Leicester. They were bought by the city’s Health Officer for £8,000. Here midwife Ann Pestell uses one of the handsets as she rides around the city on her scooter, on call for any emergency in January 1965. Prior to the new technology the only way a midwife could receive a message was to go back home to check if anyone had called

A midwife communicates by walkie-talkie as she cycles on her rounds in Manchester. Essential equipment for home births was carried in the satchel on the front of the midwife’s bike (pictured). However, gas and air – which was becoming an increasingly popular form of pain relief during contractions – was too cumbersome to carry on two wheels

A student midwife being trained at the Beechwood Health Centre, Luton, Bedfordshire, where pupils came from all over the country as well overseas. Here pupil midwife Pruddan puts her bag into the car with midwife Mrs Martin, as they set out on the daily rounds on February 18, 1950. Many midwives were still using bicycles at this time and into the Sixties. In 1959, the Minister of Health was quizzed on when the government was going to provide motor vehicles for midwives so they could transport gas and air more easily. The minister replied that it was a ‘question for local authorities’. This option was never extensively explored as it became more common for women to give birth in hospitals rather than at home

Nurse Grace Peck, seen after being awarded a silver medal, and prizes for medicine and nursing, at the prize-giving ceremony at the Prince of Wales’s General Hospital, London, on March 6, 1952

Source: Read Full Article