Midwife who has delivered 5,500 babies shares how the job saved her life

Across her 42-year career, midwife Naghmeh Teymourian-Yates has delivered 5,500 babies at the same hospital.

Now as she approaches retirement, the 62-year-old – who is also a TV sensation – shares how her job saved her life.

Despite originally planning to become a barrister, Naghmeh has no regrets regarding her career at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex.

She explains that deciding to go into the medical profession was actually a matter of life or death.

This is because Naghmeh was living in Iran at the time of the Cultural Revolution, which saw the overthrow of the monarchy in 1978.

So she fled the country and moved to England at the age of 19.

Recalling the events, Naghmeh says: ‘My family was being persecuted because of our Bahá’i faith.

‘When the revolutionaries found our address, they posted a letter through our door saying they would rape the women and kills us all.

‘They had told us the date they would be coming for us, so my parents and I moved out to the Hilton hotel and only went home when that date passed and nothing had happened.

‘At that time, we were all living under a curfew, so one morning when it lifted at 6am, my parents bundled me off to the airport and onto a plane that came to the UK via Paris.

‘When I got here, my written English was poor and my spoken English was pretty much non-existent, so I signed up for college.’

However, Naghmeh soon found herself with a huge visa problem – as, despite her Iranian passport being issued for 10 years, she still had to get it renewed every year.

But her brother pointed out that going into nursing might help overcome the issue.

Naghmeh says: ‘He pointed out it would solve all my problems. I’d have somewhere to live, I would be earning an income, I’d be getting a profession and, best of all, my visa would then be renewed, so I could stay here.’

As a result, Naghmeh found the addresses for 40 hospital trusts within a 30 miles radius of Luton – where she was living at the time.

But, because of the political situation in Iran, only one hospital invited her for an interview. That hospital was Princess Alexandra – the place she stayed for the rest of her career.

During the interview, Naghmeh explained that, because her family’s name was on a blacklist, she feared for her life if she was sent back to Iran – and she was surprised to be offered a job on the spot.

Naghmeh adds: ‘I owe my life to the woman who interviewed me.

‘She came back into the room and said, “We’ve discussed your case and we think we owe it to humanity to give you a place here.”’

Naghmeh started her training soon after and met her future husband Geoff at the same time.

Now Naghmeh is known for appearing on the Emma Willis TV show Delivering Babies – which was filmed at the hospital.

‘Every shift, I feel we’ve saved a life,’ she continues.

‘I don’t do this alone. I am part of a team, but every day I leave work and reflect on the part I played in saving a life when a baby has been born safely.

‘Giving birth can be an emotional, difficult, frightening and fraught time for parents and it is such a privilege to be able to help them.

‘They invite you into their life, tell you their private thoughts and I never ever take that for granted.’

However, despite her work, Naghmeh says she still felt anxious when she had her own children.

She add: ‘I had all my midwifery books by my bedside throughout my first pregnancy, so was convinced I’d have all the problems I was reading about.

‘When it came to time to give birth, like so many first-time mothers, I had a lot of fear and was scared I was going to die.

‘But, at the same time, I had a lot of knowledge about what was happening with my body and what both the baby and my body would be doing during the birth, so that was reassuring.

‘I also knew that by putting my trust into the professional team around me, I would be as safe as I possibly could be.

‘When I am with ladies now who tell me that they are frightened, I can truly empathise, but I can also reassure them.’

For years, Naghmeh hoped she would return to Iran one day, as she’s always felt sad about the way she left.

But now she says it’s her job that she’s going to miss the most.

She continues: ‘There’s not a day that I don’t look back and think about having to leave Iran and even now it seems surreal.

‘I became two people and have been two people my whole life, because the person who came here was not the same as the person I’d been in Iran.

‘But as I think about retirement, I realise the one big thing I will miss is not Iran now, it is my job.

‘When people ask me what I do for work, I love saying, “I am a midwife,” because whenever I have said it I have felt so proud.’

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