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Call The Midwife

640 replies

Daffodilly · 15/01/2014 21:47

I'm sure after the Christmas special they said a new series would be starting in the New Year. So where is it?? [impatient]

OP posts:
MrsSippie · 03/03/2014 17:28

I wonder why they were always so horrible - and feared really.

BertieBotts · 03/03/2014 17:44

I think it wasn't known then, the effects that emotions like fear and happiness can have on recovery from illness. Mothers would have had several other DC to look after, it wouldn't have been considered proper for fathers to take time off work and there might not be handy other female relatives to look after the other DC (let alone cook for the husband etc!)

So the hospital experience was meant to be efficient rather than sentimental. It wasn't until Bowlby's work on attachment in the 1960s and 70s that it was found that separating children from their caregivers so suddenly for prolonged periods of time, especially when they are having a traumatic and scary experience was harmful Confused I mean, it seems so obvious now! But I suppose children weren't really seen as people and even adults weren't really supposed to show emotion except at acceptable times like funerals.

MrsSippie · 03/03/2014 17:50

Certainly has caused me some serious emotional problems - which I didn't even relate to that lack of care until very recently.

ppeatfruit · 03/03/2014 17:54

Yes true Bertie And don't forget the influence that the book by Truby King had in the 30s in which he reckoned if you picked up baby and fed on demand then you were making "a rod for your back". Some mums used to wait, for the 4 hour interval between feeds, outside their LOs rooms in tears listening to them screaming with milk dripping through their clothes it's almost unbelievable.

BertieBotts · 03/03/2014 17:56

:( We watched this film during A Level psychology and it was heartbreaking.

ppeatfruit · 03/03/2014 17:58

IMO we're all scarred by something that happened in our babyhood. I was lucky because my dm is a rebel and picked us up whenever she felt like it or when we needed it.

I still remember being criticised for 'spoiling baby' by one of MIL's friends i just ignored her Grin

alemci · 03/03/2014 17:59

ooh when I had my dcs there was very little support in hospital. I went to have a shower and was told off for leaving my baby even though another nurse had okayed it. Confused

my mum in contrast had been able to rest in hospital while the nurses helped out with the baby.

half the time the babies woke each other up on the ward so I remember my son being asleep but other babies crying

BertieBotts · 03/03/2014 17:59

Also "John" which was about a little boy who went to stay with a childminder (I think) while his mother was in hospital having her second baby - he was there for days Shock The film showed how the way he reacted to his father, who visited daily, as time went on and he totally rejected his mother when she eventually came to collect him.

I'm glad that we respect children as human beings today.

ppeatfruit · 03/03/2014 18:07

There are often interesting opinions on some threads on MN with a lot of posters being dismissive of their L.O.s' ,and others, feelings; I reckon it comes from being treated dismissively by their own caregivers.

It takes a special type of thoughtfulness and awareness to try to overcome childhood\babyhood maltreatment.

Pixel · 03/03/2014 19:35

I liked the uniforms too, very smart, but I also noticed how many nurses there were on the wards. Of course I'd have hated to be separated from my babies (except a few hours kip or a shower without worrying about leaving them might have been nice) but on the other hand 'efficiency' must have had advantages. I bet there were no people sitting in soiled bedding or being left freezing in a chair for hours or reduced to drinking water out of the flower vases. Matron may have been 'scary' but the ward was clean and if you rang a bell someone actually came!

Moln · 03/03/2014 21:35

I think hospitals would benifit from matrons again. But the trouble is when they aren't great they are detrimental to patients well being.

When I was two I was in hospital for an operation, I was left in a room by myself (who the feck knows why, my mum says because I was too old for the baby/toddler ward and too young for the childrens)

Anyway my parents were restricted to visiting hours, I was alone for ages (to my mind I was anyway!) and I got a beating off a nurse for wetting the bed. Not entirely sure how she expected a two year old in a cot bed with a leg cast to get to the loo during the night!

It seem a crazy set up to me as a parent, but to my parents it was acceptable (not the being hit part!)

ppeatfruit · 04/03/2014 08:50

No pixel but they deliberately put them outside in all weathers in the T.B. wards because they thought it was good for them.

It seems to me that there is a philosophy of 'throw the baby out with the bathwater'. Of course clean wards should be the case now but not sadistic staff of any type. They exist now and certainly did then. Sad

MrsSippie · 04/03/2014 09:42

absolutely. As I said above, I had many operations as a child, major ones - and always stayed in for at least a week afterwards, came home, and all was well.

In January this year I had a related 4 hour operation, was sent home two hours later and had to be rushed back in a week on due to a massive infection. No-one had checked me over, no surgeon to see me, and the reason: 'too busy and short staffed'. The cost involved in having me back in an extra four days compared to just waiting a couple of hours (I would have sat quietly!!) seems ridiculous. So sad how the NHS seems to be going :(

alemci · 04/03/2014 10:14

yes it sounds like we need something in the middle. Not to rigid and austere but a bit more caring.

DinoSnores · 04/03/2014 13:21

"No pixel but they deliberately put them outside in all weathers in the T.B. wards because they thought it was good for them."

People in TB wards were put outside wrapped up warmly, under shelters if it was raining. I don't have a problem with that. One of the problems in hospitals now is the lack of fresh air, easy access to outside, so bugs just stay around in the air. Sunshine kills bugs, it is a Good Thing!

MarthasHarbour · 04/03/2014 17:49

I wept at every storyline this week and-every other week

Chummy finding out her mum had cancer - despite the toxic relationship i felt her heartbreak Sad it put me to mind when my best friend got her diagnosis, i lost her 18 months ago and it just hit close to home.

The acceptance of CBT as a means to cure extreme post natal depression - Sister Julienne and Patsy Mount were all for it. Watching it i just knew that the mother would be on valium for life by the end of the 60's. I wept when Sister Julienne said 'i have to go - you have other visitors'

Finally, despite the fact that the lady who had the caesarian in hospital was quite rude and dismissive to the nursing and midwifery staff, i absolutely felt her pain. I have suffered a stillbirth and am 31 weeks PG with DC2 (i also have a DS1). It is interesting that they admitted her to hospital due to her history. I was admitted last week for monitoring due to my history - they would have normally sent me home from triage - i know what you mean about how the NHS has 'progressed' since but i have to say that the care i have received has been second to none.

Anyway i digress Blush the bit that got me was when she thought her baby had died and Jenny went to get him to let her have a cuddle. I sobbed as i know i am going to be an emotional (but happy) wreck when they place my baby in my arms. I could just empathise with everything in that story.

Gosh sorry i went off on one there Blush

On a lighter note - i have an extreme girl crush on Patsy Mount - i am a redhead too and just know i would want to be her in the 60s! Grin

SuffolkNWhat · 04/03/2014 20:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Amandine29 · 04/03/2014 20:16

What was the allusion? I must have missed it.

SuffolkNWhat · 04/03/2014 20:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MorrisZapp · 04/03/2014 20:31

Patsy's high waist jeans were freaking superb. Where can I get my hands on such stylish wear?

Or at a size 14 and average height, am I living in a land of self delusion? I'm willing to smear on red lipstick to make the look complete. I think it might work?

MarthasHarbour · 04/03/2014 20:43

Ah yes suffolk i see what you mean - i wondered where that was going, i think it might have been alluded to in the past, unless i am looking for clues.

Morris i am sure you can pull off the look - i like the way Patsy isnt stick thin and has some good curves about her - remember Marilyn Monroe was the icon of the time and as we all know she was a size 16 Wink

hackmum · 04/03/2014 20:46

Yes, I thought Patsy was gay too, judging by that comment about the curate.

Amandine29 · 04/03/2014 20:49

Ah yes I remember that now. Makes sense.

ppeatfruit · 05/03/2014 08:40

Martha'sHarbour I felt Chummy's pain as she was also grieving for the motherlove she seemed to feel she had missed (thinking about what she said to her dm with ref. to putting her son in boarding school.).

It only felt personal because our dad died fairly young and he was an absent father in most senses of the word.

LaVolcan · 05/03/2014 08:48

I also thought that Chummy had finally begun to realise what was behind her mother's cold exterior - that her own life was loveless.