"Bargain" baby turns 60 today

10:40am Friday 4th July 2008

One of the first babies in Pembrokeshire to be born on the NHS celebrates her 60th birthday today (Friday) Mrs Elizabeth Barrett of 16, Cromwell Road, Milford Haven, was born at the County War Memorial Hospital in Winch Lane, Haverfordwest, on July 5th 1948 - the day Nye Bevan's Health Service came into operation.

"I don't know if I was the very first. There might have been another baby born somewhere in the county earlier the same day," said Mrs Barrett, who works in Martha's Vineyard on the marina.

"My mother tells me that the parents of babies born the previous day had to pay, but my mother had me free of charge," she chuckled.

"Now I'm a pensioner and living in the same house I was born from, and the NHS is 60 as well."

Mrs Barrett's mum, Margaret Orchard, is still alive at 87 years of age.

"I remember the birth vividly" said Mrs Orchard.

"However at the time, it didn't occur to me just how significant Elizabeth's birth was, I suppose I was a bit innocent to it all." Mrs Orchard couldn't recall the exact cost of giving birth prior to the introduction of the NHS but joked: "I think I can say my daughter has definitely been a bargain."