There was a particularly fascinating (and disturbing) section on prostitution in the area, which Worth had to deal with when she befriended a young girl who had been lured into a brothel. Worth also mentions the horrible workhouses in London, which she learned about while caring for a traumatized patient who had lived there for decades. When Worth asked an older nun about the workhouses, she was told: "Humph. You young girls know nothing of recent history. You've had it too easy, that's your trouble." I think Worth's later memoirs talk more about this, so I expect to hear many more horror stories. I now have a new respect for the Midwives and Nuns of the 1940-50's era.....they were an extremely knowledgeable and formidable breed with unbelieveably immeasurable responsibilities. According to the World Health Organisation, nurses and midwives account for nearly 50 per cent of the global health force so if you know someone who practices as a midwife or if you yourself were supported during childbirth, make sure to share a heartfelt thank you for all the work they do. More articles to read about Call the Midwife I would have given more stars if it had been possible. I've not watched a lot of the TV series but the book is much better as it is 'real' with the most brilliant narrative. She wrote: “The earlier seasons had wonderful blankets, scarves, sweaters, and mittens! I have vintage patterns books, but there are some unique hand knits in this programme!”

Call the Midwife Reader’s Guide - Penguin Random House Call the Midwife Reader’s Guide - Penguin Random House

Pretty much every chapter focused on one of Jenny's patients or work colleagues. It was rather amazing the range of people she met whilst working in the East End, they all had such different stories. Some were depressing to read about whilst others were wonderfully uplifting. In the UK midwives are still primarily responsible for assisting mothers through labour and delivery, attending over two-thirds of births and caring for and managing the wellbeing of mothers and babies. Call the Midwife (later called Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s) is a memoir by Jennifer Worth, and the first in a trilogy of books describing her work as a district nurse and midwife in the East End of London during the 1950s. Discuss the Church’s decision to take away Mary’s baby. Would she have been able to provide for it without turning to prostitution? Every new birth was my favorite experience, just the joy, the thrill, the privilege of bringing a new life into the world. I’ve had hundreds of “favorite experiences.” What a wonderful life.Worth retired from nursing in 1973 to pursue her musical interests. In 1974, she received a licentiate of the London College of Music, where she taught piano and singing. She obtained a fellowship in 1984. She performed as a soloist and with choirs throughout Britain and Europe. There's Jane, who cleaned and generally helped out at Nonnatus House - she was taken to the workhouse as a baby and was allegedly the illegitimate daughter of an aristocrat. Peggy and Frank's parents both died within six months of each other and the children were left destitute. At the time, there was no other option for them but the workhouse. Some of the characters didn’t come across as quite the same as in the TV series. Others like Sister Julienne came across so clearly. Sister Monica Joan provides a number of moments of amusement. I'm writing this as I'm just about halfway through so I may revise this later. For now, oh man. I have some issues with this book. I started reading it after I watched all of the first season of Call the Midwife on Netflix. I loved the show and got excited to see they were based on actual books. The children in poor families were working to help support their families. From an early age, they worked in the home, helping their mothers who were dressmakers or laundresses. Ten year olds were taking care of all of the younger children for women who went out to work. Frequently ten year olds were working full time themselves in factories, or sewing, or cleaning.

Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth | Waterstones Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth | Waterstones

Whoever heard of a midwife as a literary heroine? Yet midwifery is in itself the very stuff of drama and melodrama” (p. xi). I realize Ms. Worth is a product of her time and I am trying very hard to not judge her unfairly using my time and culture as a standard. But it's difficult to ignore the ethnocentric comments sprinkled throughout the book. She described an impoverished immigrant woman as looking like a Spanish princess. Making the foreign person into something exotic is objectifying, and keeps her in the "other" category. When we got to little Mary, the teenage Irish prostitute, she is described first as a Celtic princess, then as maybe the product of an Irish "navvy" (manual laborer) and then says maybe they're the same thing. Alright. You need to stop right there, lady. She worked with the Sisters of St John the Divine, an Anglican community of nuns, and focused her efforts on aiding the poor before becoming a ward sister at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in Bloomsbury. All that said, it is an interesting read and I am having a hard time putting it down. I plan to finish it and read the others in the series. I just have some issues. Giving it three stars because I am actually enjoying reading it for the most part. It's not perfection, I doubt I'll want to re-read it, and it's definitely not James Herriot. James Herriot made it sound like tramping around in a freezing cold barn armpit deep into a cow's vagina was still somehow a good time. Worth does not have that skill. Worth died on 31 May 2011, having been diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus earlier in the year.First, the voice of Jenny. She is candid and real - her storytelling doesn't sugar-coat her experiences or her mistakes. She never pretends that the East End was anything other than what it was: a hard place to live where people still found things worth living for. She shares her prejudices with us and shows us how they crumbled as she became more intimate with the people she cared for, both as a midwife and as a nurse. Life in the convent, its routines and relationships - Jenny relates these things with an unaffected and honest candor. Every once and a while the narrative felt a bit jumpy (moving between time periods, etc.), but because I was interested wherever she took me, it didn't bother me. The BBC’s hit period drama about a group of nurse midwives in the East End of London during the 1960s recently concluded its twelfth season in the UK. The Reverend Thornton-Appleby-Thorton, a missionary in Africa, visits the Nonnatus nuns and Sister Julienne acts as matchmaker.

Call the Midwife (book) | Call the Midwife Wiki | Fandom Call the Midwife (book) | Call the Midwife Wiki | Fandom

Well, in my day it was said that it took seven years to make a good midwife, so obviously experience counts a good deal. I think the innate ability to inspire confidence in a woman in travail must be high on the list. Training, knowledge, judgment, patience all come into it, and the capacity for hard work.There was more great news for Call the Midwife fans last month, when the BBC revealed that the show will continue for another three seasons! While the TV series has been based on Worth's memoirs, depicting the lives of nurses, nuns and women in the community dealing with issues of abortion, miscarriage, poverty and race, there are some differences. Lee was hired as a staff nurse at the London Hospital in Whitechapel in the early 1950s. With the Sisters of St John the Divine, an Anglican community of nuns, she worked to aid the poor. She was then a ward sister at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in Bloomsbury, and later at the Marie Curie Hospital in Hampstead.