Baby with no name and midwife reunited 21 years on as colleagues | UK News

A newly-qualified midwife has landed a job in the hospital where she was born – alongside a colleague who helped care for her when she was a baby.

Leah Hobson was born in Dr Gray’s in Elgin in 2004, and during the first weeks of her life she was visited by community midwife Carol Bennett.

She is one of hundreds of babies Carol has looked after during her career, but she still remembers her fondly – as it took Leah’s mum two months to decide on a name.

Now the pair are working side-by-side following a recruitment drive aimed at restoring a full maternity service in the Moray town.

Carol, 62, said she always remembered her routine post-natal visits to Leah and her family because she tried to help choose a name.

“It was lovely, we were involved in trying to find a name for Leah and it took a few weeks,” she recalled.

“We would come in with suggestions, we had a really nice relationship.”

Leah, 21, said she was finally named at end of April 2004, more than two months after she was born.

“My mum got in a bit of trouble for it I think because she took so long to decide on a name,” she said.

“I had a nickname, Pinkie, she had a whole list of names, and then she eventually picked Leah. I think it was her favourite but she just wasn’t sure.

“I like my name, I think it’s a good name, she picked well.”

Carol added: “Everything was pretty straight-forward and standard, the one thing that sticks in your mind is there isn’t a name for the baby yet.

“I had not been in a situation of discharging a baby that had not been named yet.

“Our episode of care finished before she was named. We were part of the Pinkie period.”

Leah went to Bishopmill Primary in the town as a young girl, and then Elgin Academy.

“I wanted to be a midwife roughly since I was nine, but properly since 11, because my niece was born when I was nine, and had a nephew born here (Dr Gray’s) when I was 11,” she said.

“I think just seeing the environment and I was just getting to that age where you kind of realise things a bit better, and that a bump on a woman is a whole baby right in front of you, it was just bizarre but amazing at the same time.

“I went through the whole of my secondary school aiming towards that and getting my grades to get to university.”

She started at Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen when she was 17, for a three-year bachelor of midwifery course.

Leah then started at Dr Gray’s in April.

Carol said she had bumped into Leah and her mum in a local supermarket when Leah was on a placement in Inverness.

“We chatted for ages,” Carol said.

“We live in a small community really, we bump into our mums and babies often, we do see them growing.

“I said ‘oh you might end up coming to see us’ – and she did.”

She described it as “absolutely lovely” that she was now working with Leah, and that their paths cross at work fairly often.

“I had been on a placement here when I was a student and it was brilliant,” Leah said of Dr Gray’s.

She described her first day as “surreal”.

She explained: “When you finish your training as a student I don’t think you ever feel 100% ready, you need to actually get out and do things for yourself.

“I did mention on my first day I was born here, it was strange to think I was born here and I work here. It’s all connecting a wee bit. It was good to start here, I was glad of it.”

She has already been involved in numerous births.

Maternity services at Dr Gray’s were downgraded in 2018 due to staff shortages, meaning most expectant mothers in the area had to travel to Aberdeen for births.

However, a recruitment drive has been filling positions.

Earlier this year, planned Caesarean sections took place for the first time in almost seven years at what is the largest hospital in Moray.

It was seen as a big step towards restoring a complete service for pregnant women at Dr Gray’s.

The aim is to have a full consultant-led maternity service by the end of next year.

Leah said she would herself hope to give birth at Dr Gray’s one day.

“I would definitely plan to come here, I would not want to have my baby anywhere else,” she said.

“This is where I’m planning on staying, I would not plan on going anywhere else.”

Leah said improving maternity care locally was important to her.

“It was one of the big motivating factors for me coming here, to be part of that, and kind of grow with the service,” she said.

“It will benefit the community massively when it gets upgraded.”

For the time being, pregnant women requiring the most complex care will continue to be advised to have births in Aberdeen.

Jane Gill, the programme director for the NHS Grampian maternity collaborative, said the aim at Dr Gray’s was to deliver the “most advanced, consultant-led maternity service Moray has ever had by the end of 2026”.

She said: “The final push now targets harder-to-fill roles such as consultant anaesthetists, paediatricians, and obstetricians.

“This is a phased return, not a switch we flip in 2026. We’re actively rebuilding our services one post at a time. If opportunities arise to reintroduce services earlier, we will seize them.”