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Call the midwife

A

Alberta

Super Moderator
Staff member
Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth.

Funny,heartbreaking and very, very interesting.
Jennifer Worth was a midwife in the East End of London in 1950s and this is based on her life at that time.
 
Hi Alberta,

I read that book a couple of years ago & agree with you, it is a very interesting book quite shocking in places, well worth a read.

macca
 
Just finished it. why a bloke reading it? Well my lady got it out of the library and I picked it up.
Enjoyed the read and learned things I did not appreciate on childbirth. OK am told it hurts like heck.
However that the story may be based on fact I am sure there has been a lot of poetic licence applied to it.
Am told she has written two other books - but titles unknown to me.
 
Jennifer Worth has indeed written three titles, 'Call the Midwife' and

'Shadows of the Workhouse', both highly recommended.

Also 'Eczema and Food Allergy', which i think is a medical text book.

I for one, look forward to seeing more of her work.
 
Just saw a trailer on TV coming soon a TV adaptation of the book Call The Midwife sounds great.
 
Indeed you are right Wendy about the trailer of "Call The Midwife" I am looking forward to seeing it but I am not sure just when it is going to be aired.

I have just finished reading Jennifers last book "In The Midst of Life" about dignity in death, a book to surely make you think and realise it is where we are all heading.

Jennifer passed away last May of cancer age 75.

I have enjoyed reading all of her books and I do hope that the TV program does 'Call The Midwife' justice.

Do you know just when it will be shown? I do know it will be on a Sunday evening...........can't wait
 
We were very proud to have a Midwife as part of our Family, Ethel Iveson, who sadly passed away in the early fifties, many of the children born in the Great barr/Perry barr area in the forties and early fifties were delivered by this wonderful caring Lady.
 
I have read her books too, but think her last one should be essential reading for all student nurses, if only to remind them what people really want when they are dying, a thing which is often forgotten today with all the computer input and scores to be done to ascertain a care pathway - good old fashioned dignity and respect are the best things!
Am also looking forward to the tv serialisation of call the midwife.
Sue
 
hi yes ;
it was just like that for the women down our end as i was growing
dudley rd and should i say weston rd which wouldhave been a bout a mile from each other had the same combination
in the hirtys and forties and the fifties
we had the work houses in weston rd and back down the dudley rd to spring hill was the mid wifes with mid wifes waiting for there call to all the local women
haveing there children was at summer hill just past the sprighill libary and facing the ice skating rink
so we had the work house for the poor and the mid wiffery for all the women of ladywood especialy st marks street and king edwards rd they was on the was
the door step they came afew times to our i can tell you ; in later years the work house in weston rd later became a hostel or as they you to call it the spike for the elderly home ess people the down and outs where i worked many years ago at pmt machine tools we had a very nice elderly gentleman work part time there he was getting on he told he was living in there at the spike was is term of reference to the place this placelater years became a part of then of of THE NHS FOR THE DEATH CENTRE WHICH ibeleive is there still there it also was thehead porters lodge of summerfield hosptal or the age and infirm my grand mother ws in there itwas terrible place and a sad sigt to see these elderly people being suported by cords to hol arms up and the ward smelt of death i had to walk out and leave my mother on hher own best wishes astonianpart ;
 
Totally agree Sue ,it should be required reading,I bought when it came out and saw so many of my patients there in those she looked at.So far Matron on the ward I work on has read it and it's going to make it's way around the staff.next student I mentor will be asked to read it.
Barb
 
My current student is reading it, although it is not so relevant on OPD! and my daughter read it while she was training too.
Looks like the serialisation won't be long as they are currently showing the trailers for it.
Sue
 
I think it's relevant wherever we work Sue.I work on a busy Stroke unit and we sometimes need to use the end of life pathway.It's a joint decision ,with all concerned discussing it,you don't need computors just common sense and compassion.
Barb
 
Reading this has restored my faith god bless you Barb and Sue!!
 
Call The Midwife .................... first episode is due to be aired on Sunday January 15th on BBC1.
 
I haven't read the book but I am watching the TV programme and am really enjoying it - although I am glad I didn't have my children in those days - poor women! I am also enjoying seeing the street scenes, clothes and the hairstyles and imagining my parents living like that - brilliant TV.
 
I think what fascinates me is that it is not that long ago, yet there was some real poverty, but still folks pulled together and despite the lack of all the modern technology the babies still srrived and survived! Makes you wonder if all these interventions now are as good as they are made out to be or if they just worry moms needlessly. Some of todays moms seem to think they are ill not pregnant and that the babies are at risk if they breathe too hard, they would never have coped back then!
Sue
 
Hi Sue.Im also impressed,when im reading the book i get flash backs of the programme.I will be reading Jennifer Worth other books.
 
I read the trilogy a couple of years ago, then leant it to someone who hasn't returned it - and I can't remember who! I may have to relent and buy another copy. If it's available for Kindle, it won't disappear again!
 
I gave my copy to my sister in law I will ask her if she still has it.
 
The order of nuns (The Community of St John the Divine) featured in the programme Call the Midwife are no longer in London but are now living in Alum Rock Birmingham.
 
I certainly learnt something i didn't know in the last episode yesterday. That was that the WW2 gas masks contained blue asbestos (the most dangerous of the commonly known asbestos types). Checking it I found that it is claimed 10% of workers in factories making them died from exposure. I can remember playing with an old gas mask a sa kid. Don't think i took it apart luckily, but even so...
 
My mum never carried hers around in her gas mask bag. It held more important things - dancing shoes! Just as well she did then. Viv.
 
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