My Son David Was Born In Bellshill Maternity Hospital

A Memory of Bellshill.

February 28th 1977 was the day my son David Guy Norfolk was born here. It was rather unexpected - some three weeks early and luckily my wife Elizabeth had been admitted a day earlier because of high blood pressure so she was in the right place!

I remember driving Elizabeth to Bellshill on Sunday 27th and settling her into a ward for what we thought would be lengthy bed rest. I went to work in Glasgow the next day, Monday, and phoned the hospital to check up on her to be told there was no one of her name in her ward. Strange I thought ... so I asked them to double check and after several minutes of anxious waiting they told me she was in intensive care and passed my phone call to them.

A few moments later a cheery nurse came on the line and simply said "Mr Norfolk? Congratulations you are a father!"

Baby David was kept in an incubator in the hospital's special nursery for a couple of weeks but I dashed from Glasgow to Bellshill and saw him on the day he was born. Just a tiny scrap of a baby. Now he is 35 years old and bigger than me.

Thank you Bellshill Hospital and the wonderful staff there.