Love in Action

This wasn’t how I’d planned; this wasn’t how it was meant to happen. I had a birth plan, and this wasn’t it! Today had started as planned; I’d got the train from home in Portsmouth to Worthing to see my aunt Minty. Yes, I’d had niggling pains, but didn’t everyone get those? Baby wasn’t due for 4 weeks, so why in the middle of lunch did I flood her kitchen! What followed was an ambulance, and a hospital I’d never set foot in, and Minty telling me everything was going to be alright, and she’d get hold of Peter. That was hours ago. Just then Peter walked through the door, saying “This wasn’t meant to happen today.” An hour later he was holding our daughter. Fat tears were rolling down his cheeks as he gazed at her with such love in his eyes. Love - that’s what our daughter was - a gift of love.

“Dad can look after your daughter, while you have a shower,” said Kay my midwife. “Where did you put the bag?” I asked Peter. “Bag, what bag I came straight from work, I haven’t got the bag. Didn’t you bring it?” he replied. If there was one thing that anti-natal clearly stated it was that the NHS didn’t provide anything in hospital, that we had to take everything with us in a bag. I had nothing.

“Don’t worry,” said Kay “I’ll find a towel, and we have emergency toiletry bags and nappies from the local Mothers’ Union, for just this unexpected delivery.” Kay returned with a towel and what looked like a shoe bag. I opened it and inside was a tooth brush, flannel, soap, toothpaste, nappies, and cotton wool balls. “My neighbour is a Mothers’ Union member; she says these bags are, Love in Action”. I looked at the bag and smiled; the second gift of love.

Our Branch, St Andrew’s West Tarring, and more recently the new Mothers’ Union Branch at St Georges Worthing, supplies Worthing Hospital Delivery Suite with 75 emergency bags a year. The shoe bags are handmade using a simple pattern with fabric donated by our members and money from fund raising events. PCC Christ Church, outside charities, local businesses and Angmering Slimming World, also help towards the cost of buying, making and filling them. The Emergency Hospital bags are the first of our projects that we have in our local Worthing Hospital. We have been supplying them for 14 Years.

Since the beginning of May 2017 St Andrew’s MU West Tarring Worthing Branch has been working alongside staff through the Chaplaincy at Worthing Hospital. This work has been in the Bluefin and Beeding wards, providing practical help and support to parents of children on those wards. The overall aim being to try and alleviate some of the worry and anxiety of parents whose children are often extremely ill, and sadly sometimes terminally.

Specifically, our project comprises:
•    The provision of hospital bags
•    The Ministry of Cake
•    The provision of Memory Bags

Written by Karen Hill

Mothers' Union Branch leader-West Tarring

Sourced from the Chichester link

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