Two midwives who worked together for more than half a decade have discovered they shared a special past.
For six years, Sharon Cooling worked alongside Katie Wintle at Singleton Hospital in Swansea.
What neither of them realised was that they shared a special connection – with Ms Cooling having delivered her future colleague when she was born at the hospital in 1995.
The coincidence only came to light after Ms Wintle became pregnant herself.
“I had worked with Sharon for so long, learning so much from her,” said Ms Wintle, 29.
“All the while, we didn’t know our special past.
“Now we’ve found this out, it means so much to both of us.”
Now a midwife sonographer, Ms Wintle initially studied law but her love of caring for people made her want to make a career out of it.
She trained as a midwife in Bournemouth and moved back to Swansea to work at Singleton Hospital in 2016.
The connection between the two only came to light when Ms Wintle was pregnant with her son, Luca, who was born in 2023.
While Ms Wintle and her family were going through old photographs of the day she was born she noticed a familiar face.
“I immediately knew who that was. Straight away I knew it was Sharon,” said Ms Wintle.
“I learned so much from Sharon, she is such an icon.
“If you want to know something or needed help on the ward, she was the person to go to. Everything is in line, and she does everything by the book.”
Her mother, Sally, had also sent her midwife a copy of the photograph after she was born.
Ms Cooling, who recently retired from Swansea Bay University Health Board after almost 49 years of service, immediately recognised the picture.
She said: “As soon as I saw the photograph, I instantly recognised it and pulled out my copy.
“I have a box of things that women have given to me over the years. I remember the day Katie was born, the room we were in and her parents really clearly.
“I was very surprised to learn this after working together for so long. It’s not every day that you come across someone who pursued the same career as you, and that you were there when they were born.”
Ms Cooling’s NHS career started in 1975 aged 17, before she went on to train as a student midwife in 1984, qualifying in 1986.
She worked as a midwife in the Swansea Bay area until 2024.
