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Original poster

Call the midwife- brand new series starts tonight!!

999 replies

Soubriquet · 22/01/2017 10:23

At 8pm

Who's ready for it?!

OP posts:
Archimandrite · 21/02/2017 15:22

Oh lord, our dentist when we were kids (Im 57 and the youngest of 3) was a real bastard. No local anaesthetic for fillings and he was so rough and impatient. We used to be petrified of going. Going to the dentist now is like paradise compared with what I went through when I was little. They are just SO nice and it's virtually pain free. I'm so glad no one has to experience the joys of earlier dentisty.

Thinkingblonde · 21/02/2017 16:43

I think the year was 1928 when mum had her tooth out, she was born in 1911.

Archimandrite · 21/02/2017 16:53

Thinkingblonde it's just impossible to imagine such barbarity being part of normal dental care! Argggggh.

ppeatfruit · 21/02/2017 18:17

Thanks Bertie. Grin

BertieBotts · 21/02/2017 19:02

From 1928, around £20 today. Not a huge sum but definitely one you could imagine being a strain for someone on a low income, especially aged 17.

My mum was 10 when she had her bad experience in 1969. She was having a normal check up and the dentist said she'd have to have four teeth out. My grandma went to leave the room and he barked "Where are you going?" at her. She replied that she was going to make her daughter an appointment for the extraction, to which he said there's no need for that, I'll just do it now. They sat in the waiting room for over an hour (imagine!) and when she went back in, my grandma heard a scream after 5 minutes and thought "that was quick" but he wasn't done for another hour. When my mum woke up they'd removed eleven teeth and she needed three weeks off school to recover. Shock

Later as an adult she had to have several roots removed which they'd left behind causing infection in the jaw and problems with the adult teeth coming in. She is still missing some molars. IIRC the family sued the dentist. My grandad was so angry about it.

Yoksha · 21/02/2017 19:35

I'm 60 now. I still have ptsd flashbacks from our dentist. We called him a butcher. My dad used to put a clean gents hanky over my mouth and tie a woollen scarf on top. He then lead me home on the bus, where I spent the day in bed spitting out blood. It's as clear in my memory as it was all those years ago.

Fast forward to Nov. 2016. I had to get a double molar out. I was literally shaking. The dentist was so lovely. The tooth was out in seconds. Treatment has come on leaps and bounds. Thank goodness.

Thinkingblonde · 21/02/2017 20:55

My dentist is Spanish, he has the most soothing voice with a charming accent. He talks softly all through my treatments, I just listen to his lovely voice.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 21/02/2017 21:41

I will catch up properly later, but on the subject of nun names - Rumer Godden's In This House of Brede (fiction, but extremely carefully researched fiction, which she had read by several nuns before publishing) has a scene where two novices join an order at the same time, in (IIRC) the 1950s. One is given a totally new name, the other is told to keep hers. No explanation forthcoming, except one has a 'suitable' saintly name and the other, less so. The nun told to keep her old name wonders if it's because the order don't expect her to stay, but it's implied this is unfounded really.

So it might not just be dumbing down, or moving with the times.

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 22/02/2017 00:20

I know my grandma used tooth powder in the 30's. I think it was called Pearly Castles and came in a block that you rubbed your damp toothbrush on.

I'd have to ask when the switch to paste was.

Thinkingblonde · 22/02/2017 07:17

I recall using a block of pink paste in a tin, the toothbrush was scraped across it.
There was also something called Pearl Drops, which was supposed to whiten your teeth.

BertieBotts · 22/02/2017 13:27

You can still get pearl drops, the packaging is modern now, I don't know if the formula is the same.

Nettletheelf · 23/02/2017 02:02

I was so pleased that Trixie copped off with the handsome dentist! I am a bit over-invested in Call the Midwife. I bloody love it. I always cry when I watch it, too.

Toddlerteaplease · 23/02/2017 11:18

The dentist is very odd looking!

Clawdy · 23/02/2017 11:24

Yes, I thought he was rather unattractive.

5foot5 · 23/02/2017 12:59

When I was a child I had milk teeth extracted on three occasions (I still don't really understand why) under GA.

I grew up terrified of the dentist.

When I was a teenager I made myself go for treatment even though I was scared so at least my adult teeth were looked after.

However, I was an adult before I finally realised that it wasn't the dentist I was scared of at all it was the GA and that awful mask. I was cringing watching this episode when they put the woman under for her extractions.

HeyRoly · 23/02/2017 14:19

Saw the trailer for next week, anyone else think FGM is not a subject for call the midwife?

It's one thing having serious storylines about things that have since improved (such as provisions for downs sydrome or phalidomide) but I think they're going a bit too far with this one.

Intrigued as to why you think that, northernsnow. You mean it's too gruesome and horrible for a Sunday night? I mean, we did have that episode last series where the mother tried to deliver her teen daughter's baby in secret, and tugged on the cord so hard she pulled the girl's uterus out. That was pretty grim Grin

"Raising awareness" is such a meaningless cliche nowadays, but with FGM it's as relevant now as it's ever been. Scores of British girls get mutilated every year, and no one has ever been convicted of performing or allowing it. I think it's a good thing.

HeyRoly · 23/02/2017 14:19

Good thing it's on CTM, not good that no one has ever been convicted, obvs Grin

Alfieisnoisy · 23/02/2017 17:11

Trust me that a woman trying to deliver a baby she. She has been subject to FGM has a lot of problems. Have been a midwife and witnessed it.

If they are going to also highlight this then I am pleased. No woman should be subject to it.

GladysKravitz · 23/02/2017 18:53

The gas the dentist used to give you was horrible. While I was under I always had nightmares and would wake up crying.

Did anyone else spot the rogue apostrophe in the newspaper headline? You'd think someone would have spotted it before it made it to the screen.

absolutelynotfabulous · 23/02/2017 19:00

I spotted it gladysGrin. Gave my inner pedant the twitch, it did!

CoolCarrie · 23/02/2017 19:38

The FGM story next week is very relevant today, and I am sure the writing will be great as always. If it can help raise awareness of this inhuman practice that is brilliant.

Dancergirl · 24/02/2017 12:29

What are your thoughts on letting a 10 year old watch it? Dd3 watched a bit of last Sunday's episode and is now hooked! We've watched a few of the early episodes together on Netflix but I'm not sure now it's age appropriate. I had to tell her what prostitution was which I felt uncomfortable about.

BertieBotts · 24/02/2017 16:17

It's women's history so it's good to watch IMO but it does depend how comfortable you are with talking about sex as that will come up.

TreeTop7 · 24/02/2017 17:27

I spotted the rogue apostrophe but I assumed it was an exact copy of one of the newspapers of the time that had genuinely had a mistake in it.

NorthernSnow · 24/02/2017 21:51

HeyRoly I just mean that it's such a serious subject that perhaps it's not the right thing to be featuring on a let's be honest very twee and politically anal correct show.

I just hope they had a good adviser/campaigner on board and that they don't gloss over it and make it seem like something that is fine now as they have done with other things iyswim

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