Christmas Day this year will begin very early for me. I have to be at work in Milton Keynes General Hospital by 7.30 in the morning. I work as a newborn hearing screener, and as babies are born all year round, someone always has to be in working. When we get in, we will go round to the patients and babies and lay out little gifts for them to celebrate Christmas. We usually put something at the end of each bed and baby cot. No-one really wants to be in hospital at Christmas so we try and make the day as special as we can for them. Doctors always try and discharge everyone they possibly can on Christmas Eve, but there are always some babies who come on the day! Often, there is effort made to make the day better for the staff too, with Christmas food left out for us. They do try and make it pleasant, so iI don’t mind coming in. I do love my job and the Christmas duty is usually shared out by staff. There is a church service in the chapel, but because of my shift pattern I don’t think I’ll be able to get to that, unfortunately. I will miss the ones at my local church in Stony Stratford too, but I will go to the carol service the Sunday before. My job consists of screening new babies to check their hearing. We try and screen all babies before they leave hospital, just to check there aren’t any problems. I’ve no idea how busy I will be on the day; it all depends how many babies have been born! But I should finish my shift at around lunchtime. Then I will go home and have a Christmas lunch with my children. They are quite grown-up now - 21 and 18. I hope to have prepared most of the lunch, and sorted out all the presents, the day before so I can enjoy the rest of my Christmas Day.
Juliet Taylor
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