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.

They did cover breastfeeding and formula a bit last series where they mentioned hygiene and the need for proper formula rather than things like Carnation.

Does anyone else think the actress playing Patsy is a bit like Joanna Lumley?

Yes me, I said as much to dh!

I have only just discovered this show - ive watched this new series couple of episodes, and managed to get series one episode 1-5 recorded (but not episode 6 so I'm gutted) from drama on sky. But how can I view the rest without buying box sets?!?!

It pops up on one of the drama channels pretty often. Or rent from library.

Bluebells, series 1-3 is on Netflix if you have it. Blinkbox (talk talk TV now) has them to hire

You might find them to rent at your local library

Dr Coconut I just watched Sundays' were we watching the same episode? the baby was eventually given a bottle because she wasn't getting any breast milk from her mum who was highly influenced by the older nun\MW. I thought it was done thoughtfully and fairly.

It's not predictable IMO I read this thread so I knew the young man with leukaemia was going to die but if I hadn't read it I would've been hoping for him to recover. I also thought the discussion about inducing his wife was extremely interesting because now it's just done for convenience. And sometimes goes wrong.

Nurse Crane's new love interest is the farmer from Downton as well - Daisy's father-in-law.

Ohhh I knew I knew his face Clawdy

Aaah! A long running batch job from before Christmas has just finished. Did anyone watch the Live Sound of Music? I was cudgelling my brains for who the actor was who played Franz (the butler), I knew I had seen him in something. Got it now - I had seen him in Shameless (see above) and he is now Nurse Crane's fancy man as well.

I enjoyed that live SOM 5Foot It was good esp. the lead girl, I can't remember her name. I did think Christopher Plummer was much better in the film than the guy who played the main man though.

Just seen it had a lump in my throat. Don't think they sterilised then it was just boiling glass bottles and teats in water or using Milton. But they would have already had to boil nappies and the like already so hot water wasn't issue.

Then you still could get milk tokens towards childrens diets so guessing this would have been extended to formula rather than old carnation milk full of sugar if you couldn't fee baby yet couldn't afford buy it either.

Must have been a huge luxery then to have ability to choose not to breast feed

I thought it was covered well because you still see countless women telling stories like this today - suffering and persevering and jeopardising their baby's health because they've been made to believe that formula is so substandard and failing to breastfeed makes you a bad mother.

i was born in 1965 and i was breast fed for 6 weeks, so dm tells me, then she wanted to go away for the weekend, plus i was her third anyway I was put on carnation milk

i thought the story was as well covered as it could have been, i know there are stories of babies dying when their mothers couldnt breastfeed so they didnt go that far

just boiling the bottles that is sterilising and better than using the Milton,chemically stuff IMO.

Noah I was born in 1965 and my Mum couldn't feed me, so I'm going to ask if I had Carnation or Formula

Odd MIL told me that she bought the best Cow&Gate for dh, this was in 1948 so there was definitely formula around then, was Carnation cheaper?

Shelagh gave talk on formula last series and she mentioned sterilising bottles and had a packet of Milton on the table.

I think they just didn't realise that babies needed special nutrients so carnation, being tinned was convenient. And it became tradition - Mrs Smith was given carnation so she gave it to her babies.

Catching up. Think I make the same faces as Barbara when I give a sweep .

My Grandmother never produced a drop of milk so she says (and she was a nurse so I do trust her). Her elder child she gave formula which was thickened as he had dreadful reflux. Her younger child, my mother, came out in hives and turned out to be allergic to dairy. There being no alternative formulas at that time she was given goat milk and vegetable broth.

I think the formula story line does go some way towards showing why marketing regulation was needed. Not just so that breast could be promoted but so that women could give formula appropriately and safely. Underhand tactics still exist. Adverts are still around aimed at healthcare professionals. Other marketing occurs too.

OMG I knew they'd give the poor woman a "sweep" I don't remember why I knew that, I'm not a MW or anything I must've read about it somewhere.

I felt for her! I've not had one but have had the induction drugs and they were bad enough!

Yes, IAm, it seems to be the overarching theme of the series this year that in the sixties everything new was seen as good and better, but that 'new' isn't always better and new things can bring big problems (Thalidomide, new formulas/nestle).

I had two sweeps...

The first wasn't so bad. The second effing hurt

I had forgotten how much I love this programme, it's so, so beautifully done!

It's the music and clothing I love