The New Hospital for Women
by Diane Simmons
Agnes’s mum is mostly quiet as they are shown around the hospital. The place seems wonderful to Agnes and is exactly as her sister-in-law Clara described it: beautiful furniture, welcoming flowery bedspreads, polished wooden floors. There are even paintings on the walls. Some women have visitors and they are sitting by the beds on comfortable-looking chairs, talking and knitting. The atmosphere is calm.
When Matron is momentarily called away, Agnes’s mum whispers to her. “It seems clean enough, but why have your confinement here when you’ve a lovely home like yours?” She looks around, sniffs. “I expect this place costs a pretty penny.”
Agnes could scream. Her mum is so predictable. She can never resist getting in a dig about money. It’s been four years now and sometimes Agnes thinks her mum will never be reconciled to Agnes marrying “above herself”. Agnes has struggled too with the different ways her husband’s family have of doing things, but she’s worked hard at adapting. Her mother needs to too, especially considering there’s been nothing but acceptance and kindness from Hugh’s parents.
“Hugh’s been sent all the details,” Agnes says. “He’s happy with everything. He’s everso glad there’s doctors around. They did a good job looking after Clara when the girls were born.”
“Men have no place in childbirth—we never called out the doctor unless there was trouble. Mind, we had the bill to worry about …”
Money again. “The hospital is only staffed by women.”
“But you said there were doctors …”
“The doctors are all women, Mum.”
Her mum scoffs. “Women can’t be doctors!”
Agnes gently corrects her. It seems like she’s forever having to explain things nowadays.
Matron reappears and shows them to the rooms where the babies are delivered. Agnes recoils a little, but makes herself look round. She’s nervous about giving birth, but she’s glad it will be here rather than in a cramped, damp house like her mum did. How can anyone not think that this is a better way?
When they’ve finished the tour, they decide to go to Regent’s Park. The whole day’s been a bit much so far and Agnes is glad of the air. They walk in silence. When they’ve nearly reached the park, her mum stops and looks at her, her face creased with obvious concern. “That woman we saw at the end—the one with the white coat,” she says. “She must have been one of them women doctors you was talking about. I feel stupid not knowing.”
Agnes looks at her mum properly for the first time that day. There are dark circles under her eyes and she’s very pale. No doubt she’d stayed up late trying to fit in what she can’t do today because of the hospital visit. There are always customers waiting for their sewing orders, a husband and sons needing three meals a day and the house to be looked after. Her life is one long chore. She has no time for daily reading of the newspapers. And unlike Agnes, she does not have the benefit of discussion over dinner while someone else serves and washes up.
“Women haven’t been able to be doctors for very long, I don’t think,” Agnes lies.
She takes her mum’s arm and they carry on walking. Agnes asks her advice on as many things as she can think of, offers to show her the pram she’s chosen, makes sure her mum knows that she’d like her to visit when the baby is born.
“Did you see the size of them baths?” her mum asks. “Think how much hot water they’d take to fill!” She smiles at Agnes. “I reckon a bath would be just lovely afterwards though.”
Agnes smiles back and agrees. It’s the nearest her mum will get to showing her approval. But it is enough. More than enough.
About the author
Diane Simmons is Co-Director of National Flash Fiction Day in the UK and a director of the UK Flash Fiction Festival. She has been a reader for the international Bath Short Story Award, an editor for FlashFlood, and has judged several flash competitions, including Flash 500, New Zealand’s Micro Madness and NFFD Micro. Diane has been widely published and placed in numerous short story and flash competitions. Finding a Way, her flash collection on the theme of grief (Ad Hoc Fiction), and her flash fiction novella An Inheritance (V. Press) were both shortlisted in the Saboteur Awards. www.dianesimmons.co.uk
About the illustration
The illustration is "A Ward in the New Hospital for Women", photograph printed in a magazine, 1899. It has been cropped. In the collection of Wellcome Images, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.