Call the Midwife, I love Sunday night telly!!

[BrightnessFalls]

well, I will do for the next six weeks

clawdy, really impressed that you remembered their names so had to google!
The last one was Mary Simpson.

Who is the actor who plays the priest? I know him from somewhere.

wow Bunty comics i did like Bunty is it still around bet girls wouldnt read it anymore I also liked mandy which had the teddy hospital or was it pet hospital ?

Viva the actor who played Father Joe was Stanley Townsend, according to the oracle who is my DH!

Thanks, looks like he's been in quite a few things before.

What really hit home this weeks was Vanessa Redgrave's voice over sum up at the end, xhen she was talking about the lady with a pelvis deformed by rickets. ' Mrs A delivered a healthy baby by cs on the new NHS, a procedure that would have saved her previously stillborn babies.'

Both my children's were born by emcs, most recently DD's heart stopped and i had a real 'slash and grab' crash section. It never occurred to me in either pg that emcs would not be an option if needed. The NHS is much berated, but with two hyperemisis pgs, two emcs, a very poorly toddler hospitalised for two weeks, uncle having cancer treatment-, i have found that when push comes to shove they really perform. I am finding this a facinating social history.

Bikerunski- that bit got me too.

Am I right in thinking there was no decent contraception then either meaning that that woman didn't have much option over getting pg either? So pregnant knowing she would be risking her life & not likely to deliver a live baby either :(

I can't believe people who want to dissolve the NHS know what life was like before.

Just watched episode on iPlayer. Held it together until the baby was being weighed at the end and they said that the woman who had had rickets had a caesarian that could of saved her 4 stillborn babies
So, so, sad.

My DT's were born 8 weeks early 17 years ago, and although they were generally healthy, I'm not sure they would have survived had they been born even 15 years earlier than that. Modern medicine and the people who deliver it are amazing. Sadly it is the people who "run" and "organize" it who aren't always so good.

just watched on iplayer. Great series but thank fuck for the NHS

and you wouldnt see a midwife cycling nowadays

I remember a midwife or health visitor who cycled around the area I grew up in (in London) in the early 70s. She had rather awesome black woolen stockings too, and always in full uniform !

My grandmother was a nurse and worked on the maternity wards. She would have trained in the late '30's. She was from a very poor background so I wonder how she did it?

Some of you might be interested in reading 'One Pair of Feet' by Monica Dickens. It's all about her doing nursing training in a London hospital during the second world war.

oh yes Pixel, that's an excellent book.

pixel thank you - I've been desperately trying to remember the name of the book and the author which CTM reminded me of! Agree, One Pair of Hands is a lovely read.

Waswondering - yes, she was.

The police taught the midwives how to drive and they were eventually issued Morris Minors for the district.

Bigfatspider, if you are going to read it again make sure you get the right one. I think One Pair of Feet was the nursing one, and One Pair of Hands was the domestic service one, IIRC.

Pixel thanks - I was being dim and managed to get it wrong even after you'd posted the correct title! The good news is I didn't actually know there was one with hands rather than feet, so something to dig out and enjoy!

Thanks Pixel.
Loved the CTM books so off to Amazon the Monica Dickens one.

Is anyone braving this tonight ? I am ( been looking forward to it all day ).