English (Core) · Ch 15 — Birth
Summary
Summary
- Context: An excerpt from A. J. Cronin's novel The Citadel. Andrew Manson, a young doctor newly practising in the Welsh mining town of Blaenelly, is called out near midnight to a difficult childbirth.
- Plot: After an unhappy evening with Christine, Andrew is met by Joe Morgan, whose wife Susan — married nearly twenty years — is in labour with their first child. Andrew waits through the night, then delivers the baby at dawn. The child is born lifeless and the mother collapses.
- The crisis: Andrew first revives the near-pulseless mother, then turns to the child the midwife has hidden under the bed as stillborn. Recognising asphyxia pallida, he plunges it between hot and cold baths and works its chest for half an hour.
- The miracle: With one last effort the child's chest heaves, it gasps, turns pink and cries. The grandmother prays; the nurse weeps for joy.
- Key characters: Andrew Manson (dedicated, resourceful, persevering doctor); Susan Morgan (the selfless long-awaited mother); Joe Morgan (the anxious, trusting father); the wise grandmother, the resigned midwife and the nurse. …