Call the Midwife

So where did they get "newborns"? I understand some were not real , but others surely were - would you let an actress hold your new born baby?

One of my smocks was a blue and white spotty thing, come to think of it they were not so much spots as huge great blobbs ! I must have looked a right sight, didn't put DH off mind went on to have two more babies after that

I don't think you're old-fashioned, numberplease! I think the very pregnant tummy looks a bit vulnerable when it's not covered up! And the more pregnant the tummy gets, the further down the trousers slip....not a bonny sight!

I had smocks in the 70s. One of my male colleagues asked me if I'd had to go to the tent makers to get them made

I always wore loose smock type things when pregnant, hate seeing, nowadays, young girls with the bump clearly on display, and not always covered by anything at all. Many a time the t-shirt ends just below the bust, and the trousers start under the bump, doesn`t look nice at all, or am I just too old fashioned?

They looked like loose covers, didn't they! They were usually brightly coloured prints - with some ric-rac braiding! Very pretty....!

In the 50s women wore smocks or other loose garments to conceal the bump, which kidded nobody. My dad used to refer to them as 'loose covers'.

yes that is true Wearing clothes that show the bump rather than draping them in a concealing way is a recent fashion. However if clothes still on ration then maybe they had to make do with the dresses they had?

Marvellous!

I loved last night's episode too, and isn't Miranda Hart just great? Just how Chummy was in the books! I'm surprised not to see more 'smocks' - has anyone else noticed that? I remember most pregnant ladies wore those in the 50's and early 60's. My mother, who was awfully straight-laced, was very against the 'bump' being obvious. In fact she used to say that ladies who were 'expecting', tended to stay indoors more often, in order to remain respectable.....

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!

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

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

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!!

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.

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 !

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!!

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

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.

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

Amanda Hart was brilliant.

Miranda

Wow - what a fantastic episode tonight.

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!

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!