call the midwife part 2

[NimbleHiker]

I am setting up the next thread before i forget.

But they may not have been commonly available on market stalls. Shame she didn’t get one!

I can remember that they were sold on market stalls then but were quite expensive so stallholders might not have bought in many.

They can't have been expensive. I had one every Friday they were in season late 60s to early 70s and we were definitely skint. Picked meticulously with a needle😁

Panic that time was running out (and logically knowing it was) meant she wasn't thinking straight. Plus peri menopause doesnt mean you can't get pregnant, isn't there a fertility spike? Mind you, my mum (born 1960) says perimenopause wasn't a "thing". Obviously the symptoms etc existed, but did they know that's what it was at that time?

I can absolutely see Beryl knowing menopause was fast approaching, panicking, leaving the order, realising that she didn't fit in outside of the order and that being a Nun was where she was meant to be.
Also the only friend she had on the outside was a gay man. Through him she met some other gay men, which wasn't helpful in terms of having a child.

Im 41, probably peri but in denial. Single but do have children. Every so often I panic that I want another baby. I need to meet someone quickly. Then I remember the quality of men OLD, the stress of being a single parent and the likelihood that a short fling would end that way. So I stop thinking about signing up for OLD. I could absolutely see Beryl being the same in this day

I was born 1963 and perimenopause was definitely a ‘thing’.

Yes to pomegranates being available on market stalls from November on. We’d regularly get one from Swansea market around then on a Saturday and pick at it with a pin in front of Saturday night telly.

I was born in the 50's an adult in the 70's and, while it wasn't called peri, it was definitely a thing and women knew that hot flushes were a part of it and a precursor to the "change". As I have said for me, one of the symptoms was an irrational sadness that I had no children. It was irrational for me because I had never wanted kids and had been settled happily into a childless (not by choice) married life for many years. It was easier for me than for Beryl because I had never wanted a baby and could recognise that it was my hormones and not "me"

they weren't unaffordable but definitely a treat as imported and seasonal.

We used to share one. Me and my sister. Not because of the cost but because we’d have been up way past bedtime on a Saturday picking each seed out with the needle if we had a whole one each.

That was in the late 60’s up to the mid 70’s and we were an ordinary art working class family.

Yes, i think my mum meant that calling it Peri wasn't a thing. Mind you, I alsocome from a family where we don't discuss these topics. Mum went through a medical menopause following a hysterectomy so didn't experience peri. So it could be her rather than society IYSWIM. She thinks women these days make too much fuss about peri symptoms as "it's not that bad" (not sure how she knows).

Yes, hot flushes are a part, and women would have known that. But all the other symptoms? I don't think I explained myself very well.

She was the same when I was younger and told her how awful my periods were. Told me they aren't that bad, just a bit inconvenient and to get on with it. Turns out I have PCOS.

Perimenopause can last quite a few years so if Beryl was getting hot flushes that didn't mean she couldn't still have a child. But i think she realised when she left the order that it wasn't realistic.

I think the symptoms are so many and varied that was difficult to be aware of all of them. I had women to discuss it with and thought I was pretty clued up but the sadness really took me by surprise, as did massive dizziness with the hot flushes and that was in the 90's. I agree about Beryl's realisation about the practicalities.

I agree. I also think there's lots of cross over of symptoms with other things. For example, I suffer (sorry, TMI) with an itchy vulva/skin 'down there' at night. This is a symptom of both menopause and diabetes (which I have)

yup...also the joint ache.

When I was 46 I had a hysterectomy. I wasn't planning to have a baby and was single but I cried a bit because I wouldn't be able to. Also, Cherie Blair had recently had a surprise baby at 45 maybe I was a bit jealous. It's not reasonable but ... hormones.

Yes to eating the pomegranate on seed at a time with a pin! I was born in the 50s. My bother was born in the 1925 and said she did this as a child so pomegranates have been around for a long time.

I was born in the 50s and had never heard of perimenopause.

Yes to the pomegranates though.

They were.

@AgeingDocthats exactly what I thought!

@IdentityCris I don’t think the thalidomide scandal and compensation is resolved now is it? I’m sure I saw a documentary that said most people effected never got compensation in their lifetime.

its pretty much settled now. https://thalidomidetrust.org/about-us/history-of-thalidomide/

I had a university friend who was a Thalidomide victim. Unfortunately there was difficulty in proving her case (this was 40 years ago). I think there were some cases where mothers had been given the drug by friends or relatives who had some left over and so it wasn’t on their medical records and so couldn’t be proved. She might have been one of those cases. We lost touch unfortunately so I never did find out whether she got anywhere.

I think that might have been the case with Susan’s mother but not sure if I’m remembering correctly.

Yes, she took her sisters tablets.

I have just headed back to Season 1 episode 1.

Sister Julienne was so young!!!

I loved the singing nuns-although always a harbinger of doom.

It was so so so good.

I'm thinking of doing this.

@MrsMitford3 started. Am on episode 2. Can't get over how young they are especially Fred.