Is there a Call the Midwife thread?

[Oodbrain]

The poor little boy

I cried too.

My aunt was also one of twins where one died at birth and no one spoke about it, as if the dead twin was some kind of dirty secret So glad we do things differently now.

Agree that this series is turning out to be brilliant after the last one which I found annoying and twee.

It is so much better without jenny in it, isn't it?

I said to H that it would be twins when the heartbeat irregularity happened.

The night-time in the hospital was weird, the lady who had tried to abort a baby and was being wheeled in, surely that was superfluous to the storyline or should have been expanded on?

I think that bit was odd like they had to fit illegal abortion in somewhere but I think how it was meant to highlight how scared Abigail was

My Great Grandma was born in 1899 and used to say with great sadness that you simply couldn't afford to bury all the babies you lost or you'd be penniless but with a full churchyard within months. She became a midwife herself. She asked the name of every stillborn baby she delivered and wrote them down in her bible. She was still praying for them when she died in her 90s.

Very emotional two episodes so far.

I'd actually forgotten about the illegal abortion, I'd say it was to highlight the frightening experience of the hospital, though I wonder if it'll come up as a main story.. last week we had the mjm of the neglected children saying she'd make attempts to prevent pregancy but been refused

MasterSplinter your great-gran must have been lovely.

They did illegal abortion in one of the previous series didn't they? A mother who had more children than she could afford - IIRC, she ended up unable to have more children and was pleased.

I think the woman this week was just to make the hospital a scary place to explain why Abigail ran away back home.

Mastersplinter your GGM sounds lovely and caring :)

Don't read this if easily upset but I've heard that back in the day if babies were born with severe abnormalities (before the days of scans) some midwives would tell the parent's they'd died when actually they'd been born alive but we're just left, unfed and untreated, to die.

We don't know how lucky we are now.

Well.. I did a bit of research this morning and spoke to my gran. She reiterated that she didn't know her aunty's name (the wee girl that was stillborn) but she was able to spell the twin sister's first name. I managed to get the details - very basic details - of her marriage. She also knew the town in which she'd died.

From that, I've managed to get the year that she died, and the age that she was. Have now managed to work out the year in which the twins were born, and the parish in which they lived - which was different to what my gran thought.

Whilst I've not managed to find out a name or any burial details - there are no birth or death certificates - we do now know the year and the parish, which might be a start. I suppose the next thing is contacting an archive service, I don't know. I'm a bit unsure if I should but it would be nice to know and to be able to remember the wee girl in some way. My family are catholic, they're all largely in one churchyard and I do often wonder if the wee girl was buried with them.

my friend who comes from Southern Ireland told me a very sad story

years ago in the 40's her mum was bought up on a farm,a large family

one day the mother approx 5-6yrs old then was playing in the barnes and fields away from the main farm,she remembers hearing a baby cry,she heard it the next day to

she mentioned it to her Grandmother and was met with a very cross response and told she was being silly and to never mention it again

the girl never went into the barn (she was to scared) but went by it after telling her GM and never heard the crys again

a good few years later and from what she can peace together she thinks one of the women maybe ,sister had had a baby out of wedlock or disabled in some way and was left to die

i guess we will never know but i think it could well be possible,how many others did similar happen to

Last night's episode was very sad,poor baby, just being left in the kitchen drainer :(
I'm glad it's completely different now and parents can hold and care for their babies after they've passed away if they choose to.

The post about severely disabled babies being whisked away at birth reminded me about the book 'The Memory Keepers Daughter', one twin has downs syndrome and they tell the mother that the baby died instead of saying she has downs.

Very sad and it is at least heartening to see that we have moved on in so many ways.

I always wanted to ask my older colleague if she was the real Trixie MrsJayy but didn't like to. . She certainly had loads of tales from her time there and is someone who always has a twinkle in her eye.

I do suspect that Trixie and the others are based upon an amalgamation of people though. Havingg said that, Jennifer Worth talked of a lifelong friendship with Cynthia so maybe she is the only true to life one.

It wasn't til 1992 when a baby who was still born was recognised officially in the law and actually registered. That is so recent really.

1992
Sands successfully campaigned to change the legal definition of stillbirth was changed from 28 weeks (set in 1953) to 24 weeks. Since then, any baby stillborn at or after 24 weeks gestation is recognised in law as an individual whose birth and death must be registered and who must be formally cremated or buried.

Sorry - meant to say still born as we know it, 24 weeks.

Before that it was 28 weeks.

Apparently a law passed in 1928 made it the law that these babies must be registered. But I assume it was done with no name and scant detail, and parents weren't really, if at all, told they had been officially registered.
It is those early records that can be used to traced the whereabouts of a stillborn baby.

I was born with a birth defect in 1971 mum was offered a no treatment solution for me so it was still happening 40 odd years ago just last centuary letting nature take its course was a thing my nana told me when she was in early stage alzheim ers so not sure how true that is

Good god my story is bloody grim written down

I thought in some ways it was inaccurate. My gran's first child was stillborn in 1923 -ish and we have a photo of the baby. It was done so she had a record of it- dressed and in a shawl. I don't know if this was the norm but it certainly happened in my family.

The nun who is going into hospital- sorry forgotten her name- what did they diagnose her with? Did they say because I missed the first 5 minutes.

Oh I wondered that as well!! Was convinced she had gallstones

My nana also told me(- same conversation )her baby was born -blue and sent home to die baby probably had rhesus disease as all the females in our family have rhesus neg blood

Didnt she say she had no use for an apron and purse anyway I love sister evangeline she is a hardy auld bird [

Mrsjayy it is grim! More so as it is fairly recent.

Didnt she say she had no use for an apron and purse anyway

It was something like a pocket in an apron she had no use for. Great phrase!