Call the midwife- brand new series starts tonight!!

[Soubriquet]

At 8pm

Who's ready for it?!

She's too young for WW2.

The new midwife is a bit of a know-all, and a little overfamiliar with people she's known for a very short while

Going by Shelagh's pregnancy, she's known them for a good few months and both lives and works with them. That probably makes you get close quite quickly!

Little baby Susan is adorable. The whole storyline is heartbreaking though and is of the right era to have been a risk for my older brothers.

I have started fast-forwarding the Smug Turners. I can't bear to watch them any more.

Me too. And does their little girl ever make a sound? Or a facial expression? Or... anything?

I was wondering if they used the true life of Alison Lapper as the basis of Susan's story. I remember reading that her parents had her fitted with false limbs and they were so uncomfortable that Alison did 100 % better without them.

I don't think Trixie is that desperate for a man: she was choosy enough to dump the handsome vicar. She is just waiting for the right one to come along.

Will she be thrown out of nursing for marrying a divorcee though? My lovely great aunt married a divorced man, whose wife had run off with a GI and they were not allowed to adopt because of it.

But IMO you'd need to be a cerain 'type' of person to marry a vicar, you have to enjoy sharing him, and be helpful with, with his congregation. Also they're not usually well off. I get the feeling that she may want some of the finer things in life which a dentist would be more likely to be able to provide!

Amazing how things have changed now (so silly to deny a child in need of a home because of a divorce for goodness sake)

What did i miss re new nurse talking about an illegal secret? i just remember her asking Trixie what her secret was (as in dont we all have secrets? I just missed the illegal bit).

My grandmother was a nurse during WW2, she had my aunt and DM in 1949 and 1951. I think she went straight back to work, regardless, even if she did take time out she went back to work as a nurse as she retired in the 80s with a long and varied career behind her. I know she had a 'maiden' sister (who i suspect was gay as she had lots of female friends but never married - although she may have just never married). So the MA may have looked after my DM and aunt, but I also know that my DM had a close relationship with her own aunt (another of my grandmothers sisters) who never had children. Maybe both of the aunts looked after them.

The aunt who married and never had children had an emotional conversation with me once. She was sympathising with me when i had multiple miscarriages and a stillbirth. She had tears in her eyes when she was talking to me. The story was always that 'she never wanted children'. I saw in her eyes that day that was not the case. Off topic I know but it shows just how far we have come with emotional support etc

I like that the new nurse is less posh than the others. I think that is a good marker for how society developed.

Alison lapper is not a thalidomide victim but the story did remind me of that. It was thought to be best at the time. They were quite good at false limbs because of industrial accidents and the wars.

I found the parents meeting very emotional. I didn't know thalidomide could cause babies to be born without eyes :( and the little boy being found he was deaf later. I liked his mum though. I've known people like that and sometimes it's just what you need to get you through a hard time.

Thanks Bertie (I've just googled her) I didn't realise that, also how unsupportive her parents were, it makes her an even more incredible woman.

I googled thalidomide when the story was done last series. It's fascinating really because it causes specific problems in very specific short time frames and no problems outside of those. Fascinating but awful.

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.

Soup how was it found in the cough medicine? I thought the drug was just used for morning sickness.

It was a sedative wasn't it? Hence used in cough medicine

It was all over the place, used as a cure-all for lots of ailments. It was as common then as aspirin is now at just as difficult to trace.

I wonder if Susan's parents will be encouraged to put her in a home "for her own good". Just leaving her for a week with strangers at the hospital seemed horribly draconian by our modern standards.

I was born in 64 and am disabled. One of my earliest memories is of going for a walk with my Grandad (I could walk but not particularly elegantly) and one of his old codger mates saying it was nice that my parents hadn't put me in a home. My Grandad shushed him pretty quickly, knowing that, even at 3 or 4 I had pretty big ears, but it has always stayed with me, how my life might be different if I was born a few years earlier.

Yes I got curious the other night too. There is a documentary about Thalidomide on Netflix called Attacking the Devil, I'm going to watch that I think.

Patsy when Trixie and Valerie were talking about secrets, Valerie said something like "everyone has secrets that if they got out might get them laughed at, or [a couple of other things that I can't remember]...or arrested". There was a slight pause before she said "arrested" that made me think her secret must be one of those.

Yes, Alison Lapper is not connected to thalidomide. My mother nearly took the drug in the same year as the baby shown o the programme. She was offered it. The reason I have my limbs etc today is because she turned it down (the never liked to take any pills for anything unless essential). It is sio sad to see that and they are right the fight for full compensation is still going on 50 years on. johnpilger.com/videos/thalidomide-the-ninety-eight-we-forgot and I remember reading all about their fight in the 1970s.

Some of the thalidomide parents did either from choice or pressure put their chidlren in homes although by the 1960s people were fighting to keep children at home - eg the week before episode showing the much nicer home with gardening for the boy with down's - my psychiatrist father worked in the 1960s to get people out of the old institutions either into better units or with care in the community.

Yes on the secret it must be something to do with something she could be arrested for.

Lovely programme all round. It is also nice to see a programme with mostly women in the main roles.

SPOILER www.entertainmentdaily.co.uk/filmandtv/first-look-at-call-the-midwifes-barbra-in-her-bridal-gown/

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Thanks page

Not clicking on any spoilers

Tinkly Children don't miss much do they? for sharing, it can't be easy.

Why did I think Trixie was dumped by the Rev, not the other way round? Wasn't she hurt and upset when Barbara started seeing him?

She was yes but it was because she didn't want to break up with him. She felt like she had to as she couldn't bear the idea of being a vicars wife