Call the Midwife, I love Sunday night telly!!

[BrightnessFalls]

well, I will do for the next six weeks

Loved the books and was looking forward to this.
Good casting in general, but Sister Monica Joan not right - should've been Eileen Atkins. Fred the boiler man should be a smaller sprightly actor, not Minty ( lovely though he is!)
Although the narrative doesn't follow the same order as the books, thought it was well done, and like others, am looking forward to see Miranda as Chummy in Ep 2.

wonder if they will show the scene with the woman parping out ping pong balls!!

I did like it thought it was cosy sunday night tv nothing wrong in that imo not looking for high drama , i think as somebody asked they were posh because poor women didnt really have the opportunity to study further what with leaving school and having all the babies

Ooh gawd, the glass enema tube. As if giving birth wasn't painful enough, let's crack a glass tube up your bum.

celia i was watching with my near 14 yr old dd and she said mum whats that for so i told her and then she said can you poop yourself when you are having a baby i said well sometimes , she was now like this , I think i put the poor child off having babies any time soom

Yes,those enemas were no bad thing...one thing less to worry about!

Really enjoyed the programme and thought it was well done

Im sure i got suposotries to make me go with dd1 she is almost 19 but i couldve been constipated and it was a coincidence , but those glass jars , wow , the spanish woman who had over 20 children i cried when her baby was born ,

"Yes,those enemas were no bad thing...one thing less to worry about!"

I pooed (a bit)-didn´t worry me though

I was too busy giving birth

My late great aunt was a midwife during similar period, only in gorbals in Glasgow. She wasn't posh but was bright and excellently trained at uch.

She remembers delivering babies in extreme squalor - remembered feeling itchy during one labour and getting more candles and lamps so she could see properly and seeing lice crawling all over the ceiling. :( quite a shock for the newly qualified midwives - all of whom lived in prefabs I think attached to the local hospital. Bit like being in the army - you got sent where you were sent I believe, but many chose to train in highly populated areas like east end of London and Glasgow because you got to rattle through the requisite births to get fully qualified quickly.

Her housemate was also a midwife at same time and remembers being at crucial head about to come out stage during one birth and just feeling something thwacking her bottom very hard, like being whipped. Glanced round and the family dog was right next to her, wagging his tail and thumping her!

She became a matron in the end at London maternity hospital, fearsome dragon type, but by god the places were clean and the patients were nursed well. My great aunt ended up being community health visitor in se London for the rest of her career. She was brilliant - such a fount of knowledge on babies and development and health issues. I do miss her :(

I didn't notice one way or the other - was in a water pool with my first.
Apparently dd pooed a bit as she was born - we were all much more concerned about that but fortunately as it happened at the moment(s) of birth she was fine.

Anyway, it should be all about choice. If a mother really wanted an enema it could possibly still be a choice offered I would have thought. But maybe they just think these days that it's better to say "Don't worry about it"

Don't worry shaving and routine enemas are no longer insisted upon!

I think the chummy casting was perfect too.

pooka your Great Aunt sounds wonderful- shame there are not more 'dragon' types around. I have plans to morph into Peggy Mount when I am 60

diddl it depends who's watching you give birth. My sister was very young and her partner of two years was with her and she was horribly embarassed. Enemas have their place sometimes!

I quite enjoyed the programme but loathed the books. MiL thought they would interest me because I grew up near Poplar.
I can't bear seeing cock-er-nee written down phonetically.
DD is rapt with the series though.

Im bathed and have new pajamas on. Bottle of wine is in the fridge to open at wine o'clock (8pm in this house). I wont be moving for the next 2 1/2 hours.

I'm marking my place. Hoping for less sobbing this week

brightness are you doing Birdsong too?
Iv taken to my bed to slob ( DH on nights ) but think I might have to pause CTM to go and get some wine...

Ooh, when's it on ? Which channel ?
Remind me !
Should I start kicking the DCs out of the telly room now do you think, or might there be time for them to finish watching their DVD (Wally, about half way through I t'ink ! )

Oooh just got in!! What have I missed?

Anyone mind a quick catch up?

Pretty please with a cherry on top

Oh no harriet, didn't see last week. Will there be sobbing? Oh no.

I want to know where all these people are now.
I mean, I'm sure she must have changed it to some degree but a lot of the babies she delivered must still be alive, and some of the other midwives.
Last week when it was the Spanish woman with 25 children I wondered how many of them were still around and remembered their amazing parents.

(I bet the Daily Mail is at work trying to hunt them down.)

planet we have a young prostitute who is preggers .
And the older midwives think that the east Enders will make mincemeat of Miranda.

Its on BBC1 . You can catch up on I player but to be honest you havent missed much.

Thanks nanny