A brilliant insight to midwifery back in the 1950's (Call The Midwife: A True Story Of The East End In The 1950s - Jennifer Worth)

Member Name: mummy2twogirls

Product:	Call The Midwife: A True Story Of The East End In The 1950s - Jennifer Worth
Date:	10/01/09 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Based on a true life stoy

Disadvantages: Some of the gorery details that we read

My mother-in law kindly sent me this book up to read just before christmas, at first i was a little weary as from the cover it did look a little boring, but you know what they say-never judge a book by it's cover( sorry had to be done). Anyway i love to read anything that crosses my path weather it be a magazine or a novel. So one afternoon after putting the girls down for a nap i went upstairs and started on this book that had been sat staring at me for the last two days to read it.

After reading the back cover i learned that it was a true story, based in the east end back in the 1950's and hence the title it is based around midwifery and was written by Jennifer Worth who i have found out since finishing the book that she has write a few other true stories.

In the first chapter we read how the author first became a midwife and how she was transferred to work in the east end of London in the 1950's. She arrived with her things and she tells us of how nervous she was to be working here compared to her old placement outside of London. She had never been to London and from her first glances she didn't particularly want to be there. She found where she was to be staying at the Nonnatus house which was a large religious house where many nuns stayed to pray and worship although surprisingly the nuns where are fully trained midwifes as well.

The story moves on and we get to read all about how midwifes worked back in the 50's.The author gives us a great insight into how things where done back then and as each chapter went on i found myself becoming more and more engrossed to the point where i couldn't put the book down. She describes in detail of how living conditions where like and what the people of London back then had to go through just to survive each day.

I was more shocked to read how the average family had between 8-10 children in a family but then again back then i suppose contraception wasn't really a big thing and having big families was all the rage. She focus's particularly on one family which did interest me and that was of a man who had met a women in Spain when he fought in the Spanish war. He had brought her back over to England when she was about 12 years old and they married, since being together they have had 24 children and she was only 42 years of age, at first the midwife had thought that her supervisor must of wrote the number wrong, but no she and her husband had her 24 children.

The women couldn't speak a word of English although she could understand her husband and other people, and she had taught her children to speak Spanish even though they where clear at English. They lived in a tiny house but it was always kept clean and tidy. The mother used to cook each day for her family, and the midwife described of how whenever she used to step into the house she could soon feel a sense of love and respect that each and every one of the children gave to each other. She regularly visited the house and not once did she see any of the children bicker or fight.

Towards the end of the book, the author concentrates on the gripping birth that the Spanish women Conchita has. She unexpectedly goes into labor early after having a nasty fall outside on some ice. For the last three chapters we follow what happens and how once the baby was born and needing urgent medical help, Conchita refused to go, will the baby survive on just her mothers love or will it be a tragic ending??

~What i thought~

I truly and honestly thought that this was a great insight into how midwifes worked back in the 50's. The story was so gripping and powerful. The author made me laugh and she also made me cry. She didn't hold back any details regarding how life was like back then and i got such a clear picture in my head from the way she described everything.

I was totally fasinated with the book and with things like how they cared for babies and pregnant women, one instance was how straight after a baby is born the midwife would hold him/her upside by the legs for a few seconds to check that there was no mucus stuck in the lungs, and how that mothers had to be on bed rest for two weeks after she had given birth. I mean these days midwifes would never dream of holding a baby upside down for fear of being sued! But it never did the babies back then any harm so why have we stopped doing it today?

This book really did open my eyes about what midwifes had to go through back then, and also families who had to live in slums. After reading this book i count my self lucky that i have a nice house and food on the table.

Summary: A brilliant book to read, very gripping and powerful