Thank you
Fri 13th Jun 2008 by Ben Palmer.Since the launch of Friday's Child and last weekend's coverage I have been flooded with comments, emails, letters and calls. It is so moving and rewarding to receive them all, and I may be slow but I am getting up to date with replying.
Trying to keep up makes me think that I am not giving a full and warranted response in each and every case, so I am sorry. I wouldn't want anybody to think that their message is unread, unappreciated or unimportant because they all are.
Every story of infection is moving and upsetting - I want to cry at them all - but please keep them coming because it is important for everybody to see how often it does happen.
Every message left in reaction to Friday's Child means so much as well. I wasn't and am not looking for praise or thanks in writing it, but it is wonderful to know that my efforts are appreciated. If either the campaign or the personal story helps save a life then I will be another step closer to the goal I seek.
June 14th, 2008 at 10:37
Thanks for your reply Ben, Just wanted you to know that i understand how hard it must be for you to keep up with the replies (as im sure everyone else does too)Please dont feel that we think you do not read the messages, we all know how important they are to you . I have been mentioning Jessica's trust & friday's child to everyone i know, and ive been horrified that mother's to be & new mum's are not aware of the symptoms of childbed fever ( i know i didn't know myself until i got ill) it's just awful they aren't told of the signs, your campaign & personal story to raise awareness will help save lives, if everyone who reads your book tells everyone or at least someone that they know of what to look out for then we can all help to spread the word. i just wish i could do more to help....
thanks once again, your story touches everyone who reads it.
leigh.x
June 15th, 2008 at 20:38
Thank you so much.
I'm hearing from so many people who are spreading the word. If, as you say, everyone tells someone else, the word will get out, and lives will be saved.
It's not just the lives though, nobody should suffer as horrendously as you did either. It can be a simple treatment if it's soon enough.
Everyone should know of the horror of childbed fever.
June 16th, 2008 at 20:54
Ben, I thought you may be interested in this post on my blog today.
http://tinyurl.com/6pvmdj
Best wishes
Lynne
June 17th, 2008 at 10:17
[...] have also been alerted to a post by dovegreyreader who has also spotted the link between Touching Distance and Friday's [...]
June 18th, 2008 at 14:31
Ben I have just finished reading 'Fridays Child' and felt I had to email you. Never before has a book moved me so often.
I am a midwife and have been for over 20 years and know only too well the importance of closely monitoring ALL new mothers for signs of infection. I have been talking about your experiences to everyone I work with and they like me are horrified by it. It has certainly made me more vigilant.
I too had a baby girl on 24th June 2004 so your story touched me even more. I keep looking at my daughter and think of Emily and Jessica.
You are doing a great job in very difficult circumstances, your children are lucky having the father they have.
Congratulations on the book.
I send you and the children best wishes for your future happiness.
Ann Spofforth
June 21st, 2008 at 18:14
Ann, I'm really touched by the fact that you gave birth on the same day and are so supportive. I wish that maternity and heathcare as a whole shared your knowledge and understanding. I do not understand why it has slipped from memory and, it would seem, from training. The problem may never go away, so awareness is of vital importance.
I'm extremely grateful for your support and kindness.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:17
I am very interested to find your campaign. Above my desk is a photo of a smiling young woman in a broad-brimmed hat, dressed in the fashion of the early 1920s. She is my grandmother, who died of puerperal fever in 1924 at the age of 28. My mother never knew her own mother.
It's an awful story and it's surprising my mum turned out as feisty and normal as she is, really!
The story goes that a stand-in midwife, not the midwife the family knew well, attended my mother's birth which was at home in Brentford. I don't know if any proper investigation took place but the midwife was strongly suspected by my grandfather of being sloppy about sterilisation and the main culprit for my grandmother's death.
Her other child, my uncle, was aged 6 and within a year found himself saddled with a very unlikeable stepmother who had, to put it bluntly, insinuated herself into my grandfather's affections by being "so good with the baby" (she fed my mother on sugared milk and custard)
My uncle was slightly "special needs", withdrawn, and horribly bullied by his stepmother. Fortunately when he was in his early teens, his spinster Aunt Maud, a character a bit like Betsey Trotwood in David Copperfield, stepped in and insisted that he come live with her. He got into the Army and, thanks to the Army, he didn't have a bad life, but he was always a bit of a loner.
I am now a doula and birth educator, and I feel quite emotional when I think of how my mother and my uncle lost their mother to this disease and how different their lives, and my grandfather's, might have been, if she had lived.