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Telly addicts

Is there a Call the Midwife thread?

906 replies

Oodbrain · 18/01/2015 20:39

The poor little boySad

OP posts:
GratefulHead · 26/01/2015 08:37

Yes that's what I understand, I know in her books she talked about some specifics but others were more vague. Chummy for example didn't exist as she is described, just an amalgamation of two or three people.

Mrsjayy · 26/01/2015 08:43

I do love you may or maynot know trixie she is my favourite.

ppeatfruit · 26/01/2015 09:14

Yes agree with Fontella about the quality of this programme (I've missed a couple of the recent ones). I cried buckets last night, it was brilliant.

So good to see Jenny Agutter has the guts to stand up to the pressure for actors to erase time from their faces, she still looked beautiful with the wrinkles that are natural for a woman of her age.

SoupDragon · 26/01/2015 09:25

I loved the little snippet where the midwives commented that a woman had refused to get on the bed and lie flat for delivery but had delivered her baby on all fours :)

Mrsjayy · 26/01/2015 09:39

Chummy lets them deliver standing on their heads if they wantGrin my mum was surprised that when I was having dd1 20odd years ago that I was wandering about and that id phoned her she said she was in stirrups for hours that must have been hellish not being able to move.

Mrsjayy · 26/01/2015 09:42

I really like the replacement midwife very efficient but very caring I hope pam ferris isn't leaving permanently though.

Clawdy · 26/01/2015 10:12

Thank goodness stillbirths are handled so differently these days. My auntie once told me she gave birth to a stillborn,very premature baby at home in the early 1940s. The doctor whisked the baby into another room,wrapped it in newspaper and told her husband to put it in the outside dustbin. He also told him to never talk about the baby to his wife as it would help her to get over it more quickly. Years later my uncle told his wife he would never forget standing weeping by the dustbin in the backyard.

Mrsjayy · 26/01/2015 10:18

Wow that is heartbreaking. I don't know when the law changed on still births but my mum had a still birth in 81 im not sure how far along she was but her bump was big anyway her baby has no grave their was no funeral and it isn't spoken about just sad isnt it

Itsgoingtoreindeer · 26/01/2015 10:39

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Itsgoingtoreindeer · 26/01/2015 10:40

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Mrsjayy · 26/01/2015 10:44

Its just heartbreaking Sad

shouldnthavesaid · 26/01/2015 10:56

My gt grandad's sister was stillborn - I think. I've never found any records and no one in the family knows what her name was, or anything. My gran thinks she was either stillborn or that she died soon after birth, and she thinks she might have been a twin. There's not even a grave for the poor wee girl. It's heart breaking when I think of my poor gt gt gran, who was adopted herself, lost this wee girl and then went onto lose two sons in the war. Can't have been easy at all.

ppeatfruit · 26/01/2015 11:02

OMG that is just terrible shouldn'thave and Clawdy Strange how unfeeling the 'bureaucracy' was then.

GratefulHead · 26/01/2015 11:26

Itsgoing, does your Mum know that she can find out where your brother is?

My auntie had a stillborn baby in the 1960s who went into a grave with someone else as I recall. My auntie found her grave site 10 years ago and was able to put a plaque there with her name on and leave flowers etc.

I can try and find out how she discovered where her baby was if your Mum would like to know.

GratefulHead · 26/01/2015 11:28

SANDS have some information about tracing burial sites

www.uk-sands.org/sites/default/files/SANDS-TRACING-A-BABYS-GRAVE-OR-CREMATION%20RECORD_0.pdf

Mrsjayy · 26/01/2015 11:34

I didn't know these babies were buried or cremated with other people till last night it really shocked me.

Itsgoingtoreindeer · 26/01/2015 11:52

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Theas18 · 26/01/2015 12:02

It was so sad and took me back to the Alan Bennett talking heads with Thora Hird " a cream cracker under the sofa" ... the lines

" she said he wasn't fit to be called anything and did we keep any newspaper...."

Stuck in my mind for ever :(

I loved the little service but I suspect if was very fantasy based and wouldn't have happened, especially given how badly the Caribbean migrants were treated too.

limitedperiodonly · 26/01/2015 12:32

Oh God, I'm crying after seeing that on catch-up.

It was terrible that they didn't hold April or even see her and that she was on the draining board.

Everyone was caring though. I suppose they were just following the rules at the time.

I loved the symbolism of the booties and being warm.

I wonder where or if she would have been buried? There was a much earlier episode where still born babies were buried in an unmarked mass grave in an unconsecrated kind of courtyard and a mother kept being drawn to it. That was tragic too.

Sorry for your mum and you reindeer. My niece died about 10 years before your brother but she was a few days old so has a grave. They treated the babies differently then but I'm shocked they were still doing it in 1981. I hope it's different now.

People were talking a couple of pages back about playing on bombsites. Where I grew up it hadn't been bombed but we had an estate of pre-fabs. Most of them were empty and ready for demolition but my friend lived in one of the few that were still occupied and was waiting to be re-housed.

I remember a fantastic summer playing in the abandoned gardens. They'd run riot. Groves of roses, rhododendrons, dahlias and hollyhocks that were thick and tall enough for you to hide in.

It's a light industrial estate now where a flower never shows its face unless it's a pesky buddleia that's too tough to root out and gets covered in bees and butterflies Smile

limitedperiodonly · 26/01/2015 12:35

And your dad too, of course, reindeer.

Lagoonablue · 26/01/2015 12:57

Theas18- I remember that Bennett play too. So sad.

SistersOfPercy · 26/01/2015 13:35

My sister was born ten years before me in the early 60's. She died not long after birth. She was taken away immediately and Mum never saw her again. There was no funeral, no remembrance and no name for her.
I always knew I'd got a big sister but not where she was. About ten years ago I managed to do some digging and found some records showing she was placed in a communal 'baby grave' in our local cemetery with dozens of others.
By a stroke of fate my Uncle (Mum's brother) was a groundsman in the cemetery and was able to locate the plot. It took 40 years to find her but we did it. Now she has a name and a small pot with flowers which Mum gets great comfort from. I always found it comforting that my Uncle had been unknowingly tending the grave of his niece for years.

Mrsjayy · 26/01/2015 13:43

Och sisters that is lovely really touching I am filling up you did your sister proud

paulapantsdown · 26/01/2015 14:00

oh sisters! that is a beautiful story

girliefriend · 26/01/2015 14:03

My uncle who is 60yo was one of twins, his brother died at birth (we were told it was due to cord compression) the baby was taken away and drs told my Nan not to think about him again Hmm

This affected her for the rest of her life Sad she suffered with hideous PND and long term depression there after which obv impacted detrimentally on my Uncle and my dad. There would have certainly not been any chapel ceremony unfortunately.

Thank God we are wiser now.

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