Midwives swapped babies for bathing costumes as they swam the length of the Channel – and back.
The team of 30 people from St James’s Hospital in Leeds, including family and friends, covered a total of 42 miles between them.
They took on the feat in the pool at Leeds Grammar School in a bid to raise £5,000 for equipment for a new active birthing suite at the hospital, which will give mums-to-be more choice about how they deliver their babies.
Midwife Lucy McKenzie said: “It was brilliant and we did double the length we were planning, so we went to France and back.
“Everyone did really well.”
The swimmers swam more than 2,700 lengths of the pool during the challenge which lasted five hours.
Their efforts will help kit out the suite which enables women to go through labour in a range of positions and helps them have a more natural experience with less reliance on drugs.
St James’s Hospital is also about to have its first birthing pools installed, which Lucy said would be a huge benefit.
“It’s going to be brilliant because at the moment anyone who wants a water birth has to go to LGI,” she said.
Eleanor Gleed, delivery suite manager at Jimmy’s, said: “We are all really excited on the labour ward to be able to offer women the opportunity to experience an active birth experience. Ultimately it means more women from Leeds will be able to choose a more natural birthing experience.
“If we could collect just £1 for all the babies born at Jimmy’s last year alone, we’d nearly hit our £5,000.”
Donate to the fundraising by logging on to: www.justgiving.com/Jimmys-Channel-Challange or text POOL64 to 70070 with the amount you’d like to donate.
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