I think they were used to intimidating people, but most of the patients were married women having babies and probably not Roman Catholic - it wasn't a Catholic nursing home, although the Matron was Roman Catholic. However, they seemed not to understand that women who have just had babies can be quite hormonal and get upset easily, so the nuns would get annoyed when some of the women got upset at how they were being spoken to, which was not how the other midwives would behave. On the other hand, having already had children, I wasn't about to put up with them trying to talk down to me which, naturally, they didn't like.
I needed to argue with them about the fact that I knew more about looking after babies, having already had 3 before the one I had in 1968 - as well as having numerous foster children. They weren't happy as they only had book knowledge and thought their way was the best way. In those days, the babies didn't stay with the mums, they were brought to them every four hours for feeding and a cuddle, then taken back to the nursery (where the midwives would weigh them before and after feeding if they were breast fed to ensure they'd had enough milk and if not they were topped up with bottled milk), then the babies were changed and put in their cots for the next 4 hours. So when they brought my baby to me, having already breastfed 3 others, I knew exactly how to do it, how to get comfortable in bed etc. which was not the way the books showed. Also if the babies were being bottled fed, then the nuns would berate the women for not breast feeding, whether it was just by choice, or the fact that some mums just couldn't breast feed.
