The Christmas holiday period is time to sit back and relax for many Kiwis, but no-one told babies it was a holiday and Vicky Chamberlayne is one of the midwives working through the festive season.
After 33 years as a midwife and even longer as a nurse, Vicky has been there for a few Christmas babies and she says it is always exciting when babies are delivered on the day.
“It’s always very festive on the wards and it may be quiet or incredibly busy. It’s an unknown.”
When she was 20 and a student nurse she was rostered to work on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in the emergency department and the sister initially declined her request to have some days off.
“I cried because I wouldn’t see my family and in the end she relented and gave me a couple of days off.”
She enjoyed nursing, but after having her first child decided she wanted to move into midwifery and look after women in labour.
“A lot of people think it’s about the baby, but actually it’s more about supporting the woman.”
She estimates she has delivered thousands of babies over the years and still remembers the mothers who gave birth.
“I meet people who say ‘do you remember delivering my baby?’ and I almost always do.”
After more than three decades delivering babies, she is beginning to deliver babies from women she delivered many years ago.
“I absolutely love midwifery.”
Retirement looms, and though she is looking forward to it, Vicky says she will also miss being with women in labour.
Births can also feature during the festive season for Alisha Langford, but it is more likely to be an animal baby.
As a vet nurse for Town and Country Vet in Richmond, being on call through the Christmas holiday means triaging animals and contacting a vet if needed. The clinic is usually empty of animals recovering from surgery through the holiday period, but the unexpected can always happen.
“We’ve had dogs with heat stroke on Christmas Day and it’s the time of year you don’t want your dogs eating anything they shouldn’t. It’s all those emergency things and people don’t call you unless they have to.”
Alisha grew up on a farm and was always around animals, so it was a natural progression to vet nurse where she says no two days are the same and the Christmas holiday period is no exception.
Though the majority of people have a holiday on Christmas Day, Stats NZ figures show that about 23 per cent of employed people in the country worked on the public holiday between 2018 and 2022.
Based on the Household Labour Force Survey, employees were less likely to work on Christmas Day than people who were employers, self-employed, or unpaid family workers – 22 per cent compared with 29 per cent.
Some of the industries with the highest proportions of Christmas workers were in agriculture, forestry and fishing at 43 per cent; accommodation and food services 39 per cent; transport, postal and warehousing 32 per cent and retail trade 29 per cent.
Meanwhile, those working in the education and training industry were least likely to work Christmas Day, at just nine per cent.
