Call the Midwife is back!

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

This Sunday (17th) at 8pm on BBC1.

I enjoyed the Christmas special - it was good to see Delia back, and I think there's going to be a nice romance with Tom and Barbara

The - it looks like we are going to get a thalidomide story.

I wonder if the lack of limbs meant that the babies didn't necessarily move into the optimum position for delivery

I didn't realise the effects of thalidomide I knew about limb defects but not the other terrible effects it must have been horrific for the women and staff caring for them

Article about how they filmed the Thalidomide storylines here.

Also another article about the problems currently being suffered here.

is this the 5th or 6th series?

5th

Was a very sad episode, harrowing to watch the baby being left by the window - unimaginable now thank God.

I was under the impression it took quite a long time for them to establish a link between thalidomide and birth defects. The German company that made and sold it still won't accept they did anything wrong, they say the drug was tested to the safety limits acceptable at the time the drug had never been tested on pregnant animals.

I thought they over egged the whole medicalisation of birth in hospital I guess to show the contrast to a home birth but not sure that was necessary really.

We're we supposed to be pleased that poor girl had a miscarriage ?

*were

I'm not sure Gruntled. DS was footling breach (feet down) - not diagnosed until I was fully dialated, but he was delivered by emcs. I was told that it is very difficult to push out a baby not in the proper foetal position because there isn't a "mass" to push on, so there may be something in it.

"I thought they over egged the whole medicalisation of birth in hospital".

I'm not sure as wasn't it still only "difficult" labours that went to hospital.

So the idea was that help was needed?

Otherwise would it have been home or maternity unit?

I see that next week we're finally going to get round to the point of Dr Turner coughing incessantly for the past few series.

Very very sad story this week, but I think they really did believe what they were doing was "for the best", it wasn't done through intentional cruelty.

I really hope they don't make Dr Turner instrumental in finding the link between deformities and thalidomide.

So I Googled and there are, as expected, conflicting stories about how much was known about the effects of thalidomide.
There is some evidence that the Nazis first developed it although the West German drug company that manufactured it denied this. The wife of an employee of the drug manufacturer had given birth to a baby with no ears 2 years before it was marketed but apparently no link was made at the time.
It was proclaimed a "wonder drug" for insomnia, coughs, colds, headaches and morning sickness. The use of medications during pregnancy was not strictly controlled, and drugs were not thoroughly tested for potential harm to the foetus. Scientists did not believe that drugs taken by pregnant women could pass to the foetus.
The drug was sold in over 46 countries (never in East Germany) from 1957. Reports of it being toxic emerged from 1959 onwards. An Australian obstetrician William McBride and a German paediatrician Widukind Lenz suspected a link between birth defects and the drug, a theory which was proved by Lenz in 1961. By then an estimated 100,000 pregnancies had been affected, resulting in 90,000 miscarriages and thousands of birth defects. Only 50% of children born with phocomelia (shortened limbs) as a result of Thalidomide survived.

It's was a horrible episode of history and I'm glad CTM is pursuing this storyline. It is not something I thought much of before now tbh.

Given its 1961 in this series, I think Dr Turner might well hear about the link. I'm sure they wouldn't pretend that he found it. Next week is definitely about smoking, I think there have been more scenes with smoking in this series? Seeing a pregnant woman openly smoking in front of a nurse, inside, seems so shocking now.

That radio times article says it was marketed in the uk as a liquid - wonder f that was the "medicine" Susan's mum was downing in the first episode of the series that we thought was milk of magnesia?

No they definitely don't try to pretend that he made the link. They're nothing on this show if they're not absolutely factual with things like that.

ive also noticed a lot more smoking in this series. as my late MIL said she was encouraged in 62/63 to smoke to ensure a smaller baby. She has a fag whilst in labour.

Apparently 1961 was when somebody first made a link that they felt tingling in the arms and legs when taking the drug and from that it was linked to the birth defects. Then it was banned in late 1961 so I expect we'll see the aftermath but not them "discovering" it.

They were looking for similarities but I think that the idea of medicine causing something so serious was unknown hence it was overlooked. Plus, I believe that it only caused issues when taken within a very specific window of pregnancy so it's likely that those two women within their area wouldn't have been the only ones on Distaval but just two who happened to take it at the wrong time. So they might even have discounted it as a cause due to that.

Did you know that it was a female doctor who fought its introduction to the US under quite considerable pressure, and won, and subsequently saved thousands of US families from the same tragedy? She passed away last year, she was over 100.

From the stories of how my grandmother was treated in hospital in the 50s I don't think the hospital births being so medicalised was exaggerated.

I read about that the other day , she got an award for it too from JFK.

Here's her story on Wikipedia, what a woman!

I'm sure hospital births were very medicalised but I thought they were making a point of it to show the contrasts iyswim, sorry not sure I am explaining myself very well

That is incredible that is was down to one woman to stop its use in America.

Completely frivolous after all the discussion but I'm just catching up. Durham boy is so sweet bless him when he gets his letter and going on about the Cathedral and the river. Tom made me laugh with "bring a hot water bottle". I went to Castle, nothing changes, you'll still want warm clothes, especially in the Great Hall at breakfast time!

Anyway, I'm aware it will all get rather more serious from now on.

I believe that it only caused issues when taken within a very specific window of pregnancy

That's right - according to Dr Google, it causes different issues depending on which day of pregnancy it was taken. I posted it further down...

The severity and location of the deformities depended on how many days into the pregnancy the mother was; thalidomide taken on the 20th day of pregnancy caused central brain damage, day 21 would damage the eyes, day 22 the ears and face, day 24 the arms, and leg damage would occur if taken up to day 28. Thalidomide did not damage the foetus if taken after 42 days gestation

My god theyt are so agonisingly slow with that section! With an FH like that these days they can get the baby out amazingly quickly.

Poor dear baby :(

I had of course heard about thalidomide as I am more or less of the generation that was affected (b 1962).

But only recently heard of thiswww.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/10819186/Is-this-the-forgotten-thalidomide.html

I am off sick from work today, finally succumbed to cold I had been fighting for weeks. The DC are at school/nursery and I am having a lovely day watching old episodes of CTM on Netflix and eating Nutella on toast.