Call the Midwife

I did my midwifery training in a poor part of Newcastle in 1967 and this series is bringing back memories.
We disposed of the placenta on the coal fire, if the fire was not lit we took the placenta back to the hospital where it was put into the incinerator on the maternity ward.We were told never to put it in the rubbish bin.The reason for that was that the council disposal unit would, if they discovered it, would alert the police thinking there was a baby's body somewhere in the rubbish as well.
Another method of disposal was the patients garden, if she had one.
The mothers were told to start collecting newspaper before the birth.This was laid over the bottom sheet, and a disposable sheet was put on top of the paper.Some families did not even have a cot, but always had a pram the old coachbuilt type.The baby was put into the pram and the neighbours would then visit in their droves.
Mothers stayed in bed longer then but that did not stop them attending to the older children.Often we would come in the days after the birth and find the mother sitting up in bed and washing a toddler from a bucket placed by the bed. In the winter the mother often had her bed brought downstairs into the living room when she went into labour so the room was heated by the only coal fire. I remember watching a mother in heavy labour clinging onto the wall in the downstairs room during contractions while her husband and a neighbour were putting her bed together after they had taken it to bits to bring downstairs. It was freezing in the bedroom and my supervising midwife had demanded that the baby was to be born in a warm room.

My babies were born in 1969 and 1971 too and we had warm air heating so no open fire, I believe the midwife took the placenta away with her. She showed it to me as it was of interest, there was a complete knot in the cord, another few minutes and he might not have made it as it was very tight.

When my son was born at home in 1973 I was told to collect newsaper but not for putting under the sheet. My midwife showed me how to make little pouches to put all the cleaning debris in and very useful they were too. She tok the placenta away with her.

DD2 at home in 1978 - i did not fancy Oldham hospital (at the time very taken up with preparing for the worlds first test tube baby birth)
No special preparations and my bedroom was pretty small. Birth was easy except GP turned up to stitch a tear without any local anaesthetic. But 10 days later I had a post partum haemorrhage at home which was no fun. Passed a clot the size of a placenta and promptly passed out. Seems the midwife had not noticed the signs that the placenta had a little offshoot which had been retained. I had to have iron injections that turned my backside brown. I think the residue of those injections still lurks there to this day.

I had those iron injections for two weeks after I came home from the hospital after DS1 arrived. The syringe was enormous! The black stains on my thighs lasted a year - not a good look with a swimsuit.

Goodness knows why the midwife didn't take the placenta away with her. I wish she had, because she asked my husband to bury it in the garden. Unfortunately in his excitement, he put it in my new nightie that I'd kept especially for afterwards....and buried that as well.

green

darn!
When my DS2 was born DS1 was 6. He woke up to find his brother in a crib next to the window. "When will be be able to take him downstairs - cos there's a temperature difference isn't there?" he asked.
2 minutes later he said "Oh look it's SNOWING!' and opened the window above the baby's head. Bless.

I was born at home in 1957, I'm hoping my mum watched the programme, I'm sure it will bring back memories for her. The house she lives in now (was my grandparents) is the house I was born in.

Mum and dad moved back in to look after my gran when she was ill. Seems strange to think I was born in the front bedroom with my dad, grandparents,aunties uncles all waiting downstairs. I was a breech baby so certainly wasn't easy for her and she was only 17 at the time.

We nursed my dear dad when he was dying in the same room and he died there 12 years ago.

That's a home full of memories, Libradi.
My brother was born in 1957 too, also at home. I clearly remember barging into my parents' bedroom, pretending that my apron needed to be done up, to try and see what was going on, and seeing my mother stretched out on her back, with no clothes on, on an ironing board. I do realise now that it could not have been, but cannot imagine what it was. Did midwives take trestle tables?? Surely not. I suppose it must have been a bed but in my mind it was so high up....

I finally got around to watching this on iPlayer this morning, whilst the house was quiet, as the volume on my laptop isn`t great. I LOVED it, but expected to anyway. Loved the sootfall bit, that brought back some more memories, of how badly the soot ponged, and how hard it was to get everything clean after a fall of soot. My grandma used to swear by soot and salt for cleaning teeth! Can`t wait for Sunday night, just as long as I remember to record it this time around!

About that time a lovely District Nurse (they have a new name now I think) a friend of my parents, used to call around on a Saturday evening to play Newmarket, for spent matches, later pennies, which had to go back in the box at the end of the evening. She describes visiting a family where the main meal was served from a large pot on a well-scrubbed table.
In those days her uniform included a navy'serge'(?)coat which she passed on to my Mum who made me the most amazing pinafore (NOT gymslip) from the fabric turned inside out!

Wow - what a fantastic episode tonight.

Miranda

Amanda Hart was brilliant.

Super! Loved the Colclough china, we had a set with roses on it, I still have it!

yogagran It was a really good episode,Miranda played a fabulous part I was glued to the TV when the poor woman was having that breech birth,so expertly done.It also reminded me of the sad way younger girls where treated when they had babies at a young age but that was the way at the time.This looks as if it going to be a really good series.

I have not seen any of them yet but have them sky +, cant wait to see them.

If the series is going to be as good as that episode we are in for more treats - it was fantastic. Those newly born babies were whoppers. My youngest daughter, second of twins, was born breach and they used largely the same method. I didn't appreciate having instructions barked at me at the time, but if the doctor hadn't been stern with me I would have just gone to sleep and left them to it - I ran out of energy!!

Miranda Hart wasn't she "just spiffing" (well thats how her character would describe it ) .
That poor woman with the breech birth, I was lucky and never had to experienced that. i was sat watching it with my legs firmly crossed !

Loved the way the Doctor nipped out to have a fag during clinic, and some of the women in the waiting room were doing the same. Reminded me of my childhood, spent in a haze of Woodbine smoke.

When I was having my first child in 1975, the consultant used to appear in the cubicle with a fag hanging out of his mouth. The sister would stand by his side waiting to catch dropped ash before it landed on a bare pregnany tummy!!

Laughed out loud when Miranda knocked the trolley over in the clinic

Can't imagine what those girls went through when they had their babies taken away from them soon after birth - simply dreadful

brilliant. The way they filmed that birth was so realistic.
I wonder how many midwives today know how to do that.

I had thought that Miranda would just be the Miranda of her own show or of herself on quiz shows, but she really did seem like Chummy of the books. A great episode, but it does seem rather as though shot like those early technicolour films and not as grey & white as I feel it should be. London was still dirty wth the soot from coal fires and the smog. That aside it hasn't veered too far from the books and the trailer for next week's episode seem just like the book too. Those "babies" are so authentic and great to read in the publicity that most of the pregnant women seen in the background as extras really were pregnant!