BIRTH

By A.J. Cronin
Presentation by Vidyarth Tiwari
About the Author
A.J. Cronin, in full Archibald Joseph Cronin,
(born July 19, 1896, Cardross,
Dumbartonshire, Scot.—died Jan. 6, 1981,
Montreux, Switz.), Scottish novelist and
physician whose works combining realism
with social criticism won a large Anglo-
American readership.Cronin’s strengths
were his narrative skill and his powers of
acute observation and graphic description.
Though labeled a successful middlebrow
novelist, he managed to create in The Stars
Look Down a classic work of 20th-century
British fiction.
About the Story
The tale of a 'Birth'in Class 11 is
about a specialist who needs to manage
a troublesome case while his
psychological state isn't great. He at
last beats the issue and gives superb
patient consideration. The extricated
part tells about a clinical
supernatural occurrence of a
specialist's generosity and difficult
work to treat his patient. The story
'The Citadel' is a combination of
misfortune, tragedy, and reclamation.
Characters
Dr Andrew He is a youthful medical alumni working in a little mining tow
n. Dr
Andrew Manson figures out how to help in a troublesome bir
Manson th and
saves the child's life because of his insight and endeavors.

Joe A well-built person in forties, lives in a small Welsh town of

Blaenelly, works as a
driller at the mines, he has been married for 20 years, but has
Morgan far.
not got any child so

The An experienced nurse to help in the birth of the child. The mid
wife and
midwife Andrew are contrasting personalities. The midwife is a foil to
Andrew.

MRS Wife of Joe Morgan, is expecting her first child, Both her hus
band and her mother
are feeling very nervous because the delivery of the child is
MORGAN going to be before
time.

Morgan's
A tall grey haired women,aged somewhere around seventy.
mother
Page 5 BIRTH

Its midnight and Andrew is returning

THE STORY from a disappointing evening with

BEGINS Christine,the girl he loves,when he

is met by Joe Morgan.Joe and his wife
are expecting their first child after
twenty years of marriage.Joe asks him
to come and see his wife.Andrew
abruptly recalled from the
contemplation of his own affairs told
Morgan to wait,went into the house
for his bag and they both set out for
Number 12 Blaina Terrace
 Page 6 BIRTH

AFFAIRS AT When they reached there,the doctor said

NUMBER 12,BLAINA
that he won't go in.Inside Joe's home ,a
narrow stair led up to a small

TERRACE
bedroom,clean but poorly furnished and
lit only by an oil lamp.Morgan's mother
and an elderly midwife were also
present.Andrew waited in the kitchen
thinking about Christine.After the clock
showed half past three,he went up to the
bedroom and began his work.It was an
hour long struggle ,but then the first
rays of dawn appeared,a lifeless child
was born.
 Page 7 BIRTH

MISFORTUNE AND A
Looing at the lifeless baby,chills went down
Andrew's spine.He couldn't decide whether to
resuscitate the child first or attend to the
TRAGEDY mother.Instinctively,he gave the child to
the midwife and turned his attention towards
Mrs. Morgan.He gave her an injection and
after some effort ,Mrs. Morgan's heart
gained strength.When Andrew looked at the
child he knew at once that it was a case of
asphyxia.He asked for hot and cold water
along with basins.Then like a crazy
juggler,he hurried the child between the two
basins.Fifteen minutes passed ,but the baby
remained to be as lifeless as a rock
Page 8 BIRTH

EVEN MIRACLES A terrible sense of defeat came on him,having

struggled for half an hour in vain,he still
TAKE A LITTLE made one last effort.He rubbed the child with
a rough towel.He pressed and released the

TIME little chest with both his hands.Thus he tried

to get breath into that limp body.And then a
miracle happened.The little chest gave a short
heave.andrew continued with his efforts
feverishly.The child started gasping deeper
and deeper.A bubble of mucus came from one
tiny nostril.The limbs were no longer
boneless.The head no longer lay back
spinelessly.The skin was turning pink and
excuisitely the child cried.He handed the
child to the midwife.
Page 9 BIRTH

'SOMETHING, He went downstairs,took a long drink of

SOMETHING REAL water.He took his hat and coat and left
the house.Outside he found Joe standing
AT LAST' on the pavement with a tense expectant
face."All right,Joe."said Andrew.
"Both all right".It was quite
light.Nearly five o'clock.As Andrew
walked past some miners he kept thinking
unconsciously,"I've done something;oh
God!I've done something real at last."
Andrew had achieved something which was
not mere theoretical talk but a practical
achievement—something real and solid.
 Andrew returns home after a disappointing visit with
his lady love, Christine Barlow.

Exhausted, he finds Joe Morgan, anxious and

somewhat scared, waiting for him.

Morgan's wife was in labour, before the expected date.

This is their first child in a marriage of nearly twenty

SUMMARY years.
Andrew reaches the house of Morgan and waits in the
kitchen.

IN POINTS The labour leads to a stillborn baby.

He instinctively decides to save the mother first,

handing the baby over to the midwife.
The midwife, who has had no medical training, sees the
body in her arms as a lifeless lump and places it under
the bed among sodden newspapers.
 Andrew draws the baby out from under the bed and
quickly diagnoses the most probable cause for the still
birth i.e. Asphyxia, pallida.

He recalls a method he had once observed through

which a child had been successfully resuscitated.
He tries the simultaneous hot and cold dips to shock the body and

SUMMARY get the heart to jump start, then rubs the baby's body with a rough
towel crushing and releasing the little chest.

IN POINTS On the verge of giving up, a miracle happens.

The child breathes. Andrew redoubles his efforts till

the baby breathes freely.

While leaving the house, he feels that he has done

something 'real', at last.
THANK YOU!
by Vidyarth Tiwari