Call The Midwife.

kittylester

DH says I have a really daft look on my face while I watch it.

The scan scene was interesting as I had forgotten till then that I was the first person to have a scan in our local hospital and the press were there. My stomach was in the paper.

I didn't have an ultrasound scan in the 1970s but did in the 1980s. This episode was set in the early 1970s, I think, so I was surprised.

My stomach was in the paper.
kittylester 😁 🤰

Well, I have enjoyed CTM. Yes, I know, some of the acting is questionable, but overall, it has been a gentle series (even though it has covered some very gritty and pertinent issues).

I think tonight’s episode was especially touching, and when it finally finishes, I will feel quite sad because it has been a programme that has taken me back to times I grew up in and also it has been a bit of an escape from some of the horrors and violence of the world we live in now (and, yes, I know it has covered horrors and violence itself, but it has dealt with it in a way that hasn’t needed to resort to gratuitous violent scenes for effect).

I acknowledge, too, that it can perhaps present a somewhat “rosy” view of times past, but yet I think it didn’t shirk from some of the realities, either, and we have to remember that it is a programme for our entertainment, not a social historical documentary, so therefore it is going to have elements that might seem unrealistic or embroidered a bit.

As an aside, I agree with other posters, “Abide with me” is such an emotional but lovely hymn, and it never fails to bring a tear to my eye.

DS1 was born in Coventry in September 1971.

Oh my goodness what an emotional episode. Very movingly done wasn’t it?
I very rarely cry at tv programmes but there’s something about Call the Midwife.
Sundays now won’t be the same. I am already looking forward to the next series, although I don’t want to wish my life away!

A prequel though sounds a lovely idea to me.

I like CTM. Just the sort of gentle watch you need on a Sunday evening. Tonight’s episode did make me cry though .

Cynic that I am, but no, last night’s episode was pretty good.

Fortunate that Trixie (aka Lady Aylward) was able to be on the Board Of Trustees when needed.

Bossing everyone about at the posh maternity home will be right up her street.

Poor Beryl morphed back into being Sister Veronica quite swiftly.

Perhaps that episode would have served as a suitable cut off point though, for the whole CTM.

I just loved every moment, as I usually do, but it was a lovely episode. Hankies out viewing: it deals lovingly with the biggest issues of life....of course there was the good bye, but seeing the electric wheelchair giving a fresh life, with a little independence at the end, that was what did it finally. Saddest thing for me - Sister Veronica having to give up her dream.

No wishing life away, but I'm delighted there will be another series next year, Radio Times gave these details for fans:

www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/call-the-midwife-season-16-release-date/

A prequel would be interesting, but in a way it's getting more and more interesting, as it's moving forward in times I recall so clearly now as an adult. And will the detective agency ever come to be...

kittylester

DH says I have a really daft look on my face while I watch it.

The scan scene was interesting as I had forgotten till then that I was the first person to have a scan in our local hospital and the press were there. My stomach was in the paper.

Our hospital only had one ultrasound scanner in the early 80s. That was in the orthopedic department. Us pregnant ladies got one scan in there, nowhere near the detail of today.

I have found it interesting as my early years were in that area of London where there was a lot of poverty.
No bathroom, just a tin bath in the sitting room once a week. Toilet outside in the garden dark, with spiders, no electricity, torn up newspaper on a nail, a piece of wood with a hole where you sat and a bucket for after.
Only one cold tap in the scullery so everything from washing faces, hair or greasy dishes was done in that sink and every bowl of water had to be boiled on the stove.
When we moved to a house with an inside toilet AND a bathroom with a hot tap my mum must have been in heaven.

As for scans I had my two late 1970 s and never had one.

DW had a scan in mid-1976 - she had chosen a hospital with a scanner, quite by chance. No question of my going along. "I'll ring you if it's twins," she said merrily. Midway through a morning meeting, my secretary put her head round the door. "Your wife's on the phone."

And twins it was.

I think the prequel ideas is a good one. It will feature a young sister Monica-Joan and Julienne, so will be interesting. Only 3 episodes but ripe for development,
The are also planning a feature film so I can't see the present formula coming back. Everything has to end.

I had my last child in December 1971 and I was not offered a scan nor was I offered a hospital birth. I was told as a healthy 25 year old it would not be a problem.

I think an insight into the world of private care during pregnancy/childbirth in the 1980s would be quite interesting too. Seeing as Trixie is going down that route.

My total bill for the consultant at every appointment and the delivery was £500 each time!! My appointments, except for scans and deliveries, were at his house. 🙊

Late in 1974 I was in my fourth pregnancy. Had heard of these new scan machines and knew there was one at my local new maternity unit in Whipps X Hospital in Leyton, London.
At 14 weeks, I went to my GP for a check up. That morning I felt movement simultaneously low down in my stomach and higher up. With my own father and my MIL both being fraternal twins, and my 4th pregnancy and my age (early 30's), I knew that there was a chance this was going to produce two.

GP agree I was 'large for dates', so was sent to the hospital. Consultant there was most scathing about a GP daring to even talk about a multiple pregnancy ' so early', but the scan that he ordered and took place when I was 18 weeks, did show the two babies. Somewhere I still have that photo which looked nothing like babies or even foetusus. The Consultant who carried out this procedure was pretty upset that day as some American had just published a book showing photos taken on a scanner of babies, and he had been hoping to do so himself.

My main memory of that scan was all the water I had to drink in advance, and the sheer excitement of that photo.

My two were identical girls, and I started a local organisation for Mums of young twins- and within a short time this became a national organisation originally known as The Twins Clubs - now fifty years later a major charity The Twins Trust.

The amount of water was horrendous, wasn't it - especially when fairly pregnant.

kittylester it was. Do they still have to have such a full bladder these days? One of my daughters paid to have a 3D scan when she was pregnant 16 years ago. Was so detailed.

I was so excited and thrilled at my twin pregnancy. This was not shared by those I knew. Hubbie at first just refused to believe it, my Mum's first comment was ' I am so sorry, darling!', my next door neighbour, with just one small child, came over so faint, had to help her to a chair!!!!

Okay, was not a really good time for us personally. Hubbie had recently been diagnosed with MS, money was incredibly tight and we lived in a delightful terrace new build 3-bedroom house which could not have a loft extension, etc.

My pregnancy was fraught with problems, hubbie's condition worsened very suddenly, and he was hospitalised, I got a really bad bout of 'flu, old, over-worked washing machine caught fire causing smoke damage in the whole house, new one, when installed, popped off from pipe during one night causing whole ground floor to become a water feature1111

I hated it when people kept saying to me, 'Well, can't get any worse', as all I could think about was the two tiny lives I was carrying. I was eventually taken into hospital as I was losing weight.

But we did all survive, Babes were breastfed by me for first nine months (far to lazy to make up all those bottles). Fed together, could even have the 2 1/2-year old sitting with me on bed and read her a story whilst so doing.

When all the letters started to arrive from all over the country in response to publicity about our newly formed twins club, the saddest ones were those who expressed their horror at trying to cope with two small babies. 'I wanted the second one to be born dead', one actually read. Some were funny - local lady with boy/girl twin, who told us how many times she would tell people that and then they would ask 'Are they identical?'!!!!!

Feels like another world and another person now - but having those twins and helping to start the Twins Trust were great times. Those babies celebrated their 50th birthdays last year, one having a joint birthday with her own youngest daughter.

This thread has brought about a message from the very first member of of our newly formed Twins Club back then, so the happy times continue. Thank you GN!!!

My mum had twins and I always thought I would have loved to have done the same.

I was born in 1963 and I'm sure I remember my mum telling me that she was asked if she would be a 'guinea pig' for a new scan they were trialing at the time, as she was quite a high risk pregnancy. Would that even have been possible then? I didn't think ultrasound scans were around at that time.

Franbern

kittylester it was. Do they still have to have such a full bladder these days? One of my daughters paid to have a 3D scan when she was pregnant 16 years ago. Was so detailed.

I was so excited and thrilled at my twin pregnancy. This was not shared by those I knew. Hubbie at first just refused to believe it, my Mum's first comment was ' I am so sorry, darling!', my next door neighbour, with just one small child, came over so faint, had to help her to a chair!!!!

Okay, was not a really good time for us personally. Hubbie had recently been diagnosed with MS, money was incredibly tight and we lived in a delightful terrace new build 3-bedroom house which could not have a loft extension, etc.

My pregnancy was fraught with problems, hubbie's condition worsened very suddenly, and he was hospitalised, I got a really bad bout of 'flu, old, over-worked washing machine caught fire causing smoke damage in the whole house, new one, when installed, popped off from pipe during one night causing whole ground floor to become a water feature1111

I hated it when people kept saying to me, 'Well, can't get any worse', as all I could think about was the two tiny lives I was carrying. I was eventually taken into hospital as I was losing weight.

But we did all survive, Babes were breastfed by me for first nine months (far to lazy to make up all those bottles). Fed together, could even have the 2 1/2-year old sitting with me on bed and read her a story whilst so doing.

When all the letters started to arrive from all over the country in response to publicity about our newly formed twins club, the saddest ones were those who expressed their horror at trying to cope with two small babies. 'I wanted the second one to be born dead', one actually read. Some were funny - local lady with boy/girl twin, who told us how many times she would tell people that and then they would ask 'Are they identical?'!!!!!

Feels like another world and another person now - but having those twins and helping to start the Twins Trust were great times. Those babies celebrated their 50th birthdays last year, one having a joint birthday with her own youngest daughter.

This thread has brought about a message from the very first member of of our newly formed Twins Club back then, so the happy times continue. Thank you GN!!!

My mum had twins, and Nan was very tight lipped about it disapprovingly.

Mum reckoned in later years that Nan thought mum and dad must have been "getting up to" something especially weird and Not At All Proper to get twins. 😳

re perimenopausal and menopausal pregnancies. I was born in 1964 and knew several families who had one, two or three children just after they married in their 20s.

Then had an "Oops pregnancy" in their 30's .

And then a "Fuck, didn't think that could happen now" pregnancy in their 40s or early 50's.

Mother Nature can be a bitch at times.

I had 2 pregnancies in the late seventies but never offered a scan.
I had a scan in the 80s but only because I was having an amniocentesis

Mother Nature can be a bitch at times.

An "Oops" can turn out to be a delight and a blessing 🙂