To think Call the Midwife is too depressing

[jewelledsky]

for a Sunday night and to almost be tempted by Top Gear as a light viewing alternative? Where is Downton Abbey?

[rumbleinthrjungle]

Love it. Although the worthy social messaging the BBC manages to stuff in can grate a bit sometimes - yesterday's bit about the older nurse who grew up in the East End defying the 1950s belief in bottles/science is best for supporting breast feeding was interesting, but an 11 year old boy explaining loudly to parents about the merits of breast feeding over bottle feeding was a bit stretched. DF commented if he'd said the word 'breast' out loud in his family home at that age in the 50s he'd have got a thick ear, never mind knowing anything about feeding a baby.

[SomeSortOfDeliciousBiscuit]

Well, it is ON the television, so of course it is televisual.

[Babycham1979]

Depressing, twee, trite, misty-eyed, nonsensical nostalgia. Televisual shite.

[BeyondDoesBootcamp]

Its an old thread...

[gotthemoononastick]

The Norman Hartnell uniforms are still worn with pride in some African state hospitals.

The nursing ethos is the same there as well.

All against great odds.

[TheFecklessFairy]

I'm surprised none of you mentioned the Child Migrant Programme in Sunday's episode - now that WAS scandalous.

[Theboodythatrocked]

Oh ouch can't stand it.

Angry fannies are not how I want to relax on a Sunday night. My own and seeing them in a past nursing career was enough.

Cuppa and country file for me.

[devilsice123]

which book is it in?

[LadyApricot]

Loved every episode so far and last nights was fantastic. Have not watched an episode without crying yet though!

[SarfEasticated]

A fabulous episode yesterday.

[BoffinMum]

We had to put the hospital on alert when I had DC4, as I have been on a lot of opiates during the pregnancy, and there was a risk of depressed respiration in the newborn, which would have required medication pretty urgently. Otherwise I think the feeling is generally that it's better to transfer someone rapidly in the care of paramedics than attempt to faff about with obstetric procedures at home without the proper equipment, etc.

[stubbornstains]

I guess obstetric flying squads really aren't needed any more now that we have fast ambulances and midwives in cars! I just loved the idea, and the name....

By the way, a radical hippy friend of mine did have an ambulance sat outside her house during the whole of her labour....with twins. (There was also a gap of an hour between the 2 births, which apparently is a complete no-no, and her partner spent most of that period comforting the midwife! Mother and both babies were absolutely fine, thankfully).

[SarfEasticated]

I loved the uniforms in that episode too. Norman Hartnell. My nurses dressing up set looked a bit like that when I was little.
I really want Sister Bernadette to survive and marry the doctor.

[landrover]

I was highly amused a couple of episodes back when jenny was working in the hospital. A man in a hospital bed was told off for smoking! " you know you are only allowed to smoke during visiting hours!" Ash tray sat on his table, soo amazing how things were!

[mrsjay]

I know im late but I just watched Sundays this afternoon the tears just kept falling I didnt even get any warning what a moving episode
I really think CTM is the best thing the BBC has produced in years, I was gripped today and felt drained after watching it poor sister Bernadette

[AmberLeaf]

Yes I think the traditional styled flying squads went out ages ago.

[LaVolcan]

I am sure that the old flying squads got disbanded sometime in the 1980s.

I think it varies from locality to locality as to what sort of back up the ambulance service provides these days. I think in some areas the midwives can say they need an ambulance and one will be sent, but in others they have to go through the same procedure as an ordinary member of the general public would. No first hand experience of this - just what I have read.

[AmberLeaf]

No it isn't bollocks or an urban myth.

I didn't say or think that it meant there was an ambulance on stand by at the end of your rd!

That is what the midwife called it, I assume it meant that 'they' would be aware of a homebirth happening should the need for transportation arise.

I know that the old style 'flying squad' of obstetrician etc coming to your home is no more, maybe it is just a term that was still used?

In the event my friend was taken in due to shoulder dystocia and a very large baby. As far as I know it was a regular ambulance and paramedics and the two midwives who were at her home already.

But that was definitely what the midwife referred to it as.

[LaVolcan]

I think the USA's maternal mortality rate is poor too - something like 40th on the list of developed countries. What is worse it's probably an underestimate; there is no consistency in reporting deaths between States, so someone could have died from a complication of childbirth, but because the birth was some weeks earlier, it wouldn't go on the form as the cause.

[BoffinMum]

I think that's a good point. There are many vested interests involved in attempting to privatise the NHS through the back door, but you only have to look at the appalling health of the poor in the US, combined with rising infant mortality rates, to see what it would be like not to have a proper health service. They spend a lot more than we do in total but get less for their money collectively. And they bitch about what they call 'socialised medicine'?

Think Staffordshire was bad? Multiply that by about 100 and that is how abysmal healthcare would be for the majority of people who happened to be out of work or ruled out from private insurance because they had pre-existing health conditions.

Don't get me wrong, I think a bit of minor private competition to the NHS is a good thing as it keeps it looking at standards and structures self-critically, but anything more than the most token private sector in this country would make me very concerned indeed.

[BangOn]

i read the first book 3 years ago when dd2 was on the way. could only ever picture Chummy as Miranda Hart at the time.

For those who are saying 'yes but we had the nhs then'. The health service was in its infancy, if you'll excuse the pun. the doctors & midwives were struggling to fix what hundreds of years of private, unregulated 'healthcare' had done to the poor, & obviously, modern medicine still had a long way to go. A hundred & & fify years from now, when no-one living remembers the NHS & our decendents are having families if ten or more because of high infant mortality rates, perhaps some kind soul will come along & reinvent the wheel. that's the most optimistic thought i can contemplate when i think of the future of public services right now.

[CinnabarRed]

I've just finshed reading the Mrs Jenkins chapters of the first book.

It was 1916 that she had the industrial accident that meant that she couldn't support her family any longer.

In 1916 her baby died of starvation, and she had to weigh down his tiny body in an orange box and drop him in the Thames because she couldn't afford a funeral.

In 1916 she took her remaining 5 children to the workhouse. Her three children under 5 years old were separated from the oldest boy (9 years), the oldest girl (10 years) and their mother. She never saw them again.

In 1920 the last of her 5 children died in the workhouse.

Less than a century ago.

[ppeatfruit]

I always remember being shocked by my friend's late Victorian terraced North London house which had no bathroom (just a tin bath which lived under a wooden drainer in their kitchen\scullery. I didn't dare ask her about her toilet . This was in the early 60s

[AmberLeaf]

Omg! goes to show how lucky we are these days!