Midwife who delivered 1,000 babies dies at 92

A RETIRED midwife who delivered well over 1,000 babies at Lymm has died at the age of 92.
Nurse Joan Pike – known as Peggy, or Peg during the 50-plus years she lived in Lymm – passed away at a nursing home in her home city of Sheffield where she had spent the past four years to be close to her family.
Peggy started her nursing career at Sheffield Hospital aged about 18. She was a career woman and never married. She obtained her SRN qualification at the North Middlesex Hospital before specialising in midwifery.
She obtained her first position in Lymm as District Midwife in the late 1940s and eventally settled in The Crescent, where she lived for more than 50 happy years.
At first she travelled around the village on foot or bicycle to deliver babies – including at outlying farms –  once being met midway by an anxious husband and jumping on his tandem to get there in time!
Eventually she acquired a car and was known and remembered by three generations of the same family, delivering their babies and making it a wonderful experience.
Peggy’s niece, said: “Peg loved life and was never happier than when she was in the company of friends, family or one of her little pet poodles. She enjoyed cooking, musicals, her beautiful garden and travelling.
“One of her favourite memories was of travelling to Rome in 1960 to represent Britain at the International Confederation of Midwives.  Another was of crowing the May Queen in Lymm.
“Peg was popular and loved by everyone who knew here. She will be sadly missed and never forgotten.”