Sometimes you’ve got to drop the cynicism …

… and people who know me will say that I’ve got more to drop than most. But I’m not uncomfortable about that, our government (at all levels), big business and other large institutions like the NHS deserve a cynical view.

However: I’m not always cynical and sometimes veer to the other extreme of sentimentality, especially where my family is concerned. And this week saw the latest addition: Amelia Chloe at just over 3kg in Leeds General yesterday.

I inevitably reflected back on the first births in ‘my’ family. Clare (left in the picture above) and Charles were both born in Switzerland where, I’m sure you’d imagine, hospitals are incredibly clean, the doctors and nurses are very efficient and the system appears to operate without the support of an army of outsiders. I remember that we had to register boy’s and girl’s names before my wife was admitted to the hospital and that I was photographed, with a Polaroid camera, no smart phones in those days, giving both babies their first baths.

Having one’s first child is a bit like changing the order of precedence for accession to the throne except that here it’s access to the father’s time and  ‘share of mind’. All of a sudden driving safely becomes a priority and beer drinking, running and work slip down in the pecking order. You spend a ridiculous time simply looking at the baby, often checking that it’s still breathing. I had to keep reminding myself, as I had before the births, that several billion has successfully been through this process and that the odds were very much in favour of this one. As it proved.

Amelia was born in Leeds General which appeared spotless and remarkably calm, certainly calmer than Addenbrookes. The staff were super: clearly competent and very empathetic, but I guess that’s easy in a maternity ward. And of course there were lots of ethnic origins in evidence although most of the accents were broad Yorkshire.

And that’s the truth about the NHS. Day after day it treats millions (?) of people well, many of them exceptionally well. But it’s ill-served by meddling politicians, inept managers and newspapers that just want to sensationalise bad news. I’m cynical about them but not about the people who actually work in the NHS and do a job of which its founders would be proud.

Clare and Amelia are of course family and their good experience follows those of three friends: the first a heart attack away from home, the second a sad end-of life story and the third an unsettling infection. All were great examples of a great NHS.

Finally back to Amelia. I’ve always said that all babies look like Winston Churchill but this one doesn’t. She really is very good-looking; maybe something to do with her maternal grandfather?