Ask The Midwife

[DaisyNonna]

Could make the basis of a really interesting social history syllabus

[Mamyalynne]

Call the Midwife ??

If so, I agree.

[hc4361]

I think this episode of Call the Midwife doesn't reflect the reality at the time.
Many GPs didn't want to prescribe it at all except where the woman was older and had several children and were still married. There was still a stigma about young, single women having sex and some GPs refused to prescrible them the Pill.
It wasn't until the early/mid 70s when Family Planning Centres were allowed to prescribe them to the young, single women that a lot of GPs changed their attitude. Better for them that they know which patients were taking it than to be kept in the dark - the clinics didn't have to inform them and in any case many young women gave false names.

I know in Call the Midwife the GP is progressive and keen to prescribe new medicines but in my opinion he would have been the exception to the rule.

[viv41]

I've stopped watching this, far too graphic for me! I know they are not actually gving birth, but it's VERY accurate ....

[Cloverjo]

I don't watch it any more as it doesn't ring true. The first two series were based on Jenny Lee's memoirs, which I enjoyed. Since the actress playing her has left, they are made-up stories. When they made Trixie a drinker, I stopped believing in it all together. Trixie is meant to be a real person in the memoirs. What about libel? What would her family think to see her portrayed like that?
I don't believe even the memoirs now. Shame, I used to love the show.

[hc4361]

The ongoing storyline of the thalidomide scandal is superb.

[Bathsheba]

Have come out of News section to seek sanctuary in here ;)

I love Call the Midwife too, and hc was bang on at 22.37, and also 10.48 ;)

Baths
x x

[Bathsheba]

@Daisy,...sorry, completely ignored you there...;) Yes I do think it would ;)

Baths
x x x

[hc4361]

In her memoirs the author changed the names of the people she worked with. The lady who Trixie is thought to be based on stated she didn't drink as much as Trixie. There is no chance of libel because the real people can't be identified.

[hc4361]

Lovely article here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9084310/Nuns-from-the-order-that-inspired-Call-the-Midwife-never-miss-a-show.html

[viv41]

I too think the storylines are good, but I just can't stand the realism any more !!

[woofgang]

i got the pill from a family planning centre in 1972 (FPA, not Brooke) and I wasn’t among the first of the single women. I remember the doctor being concerned about my age because I looked about 15 (I was actually 19) I think my genuine indignant response when she challenged my age convinced her. The centre kept its own patient notes, didn’t ask about my GP and looking back, i needn’t have used my own name, although I did. I think whatever the government guidance said, the clinics were realistic enough to know that even if they had tried to check whether women were married or not, they were on a loser....also the people who worked in Family Planning clinics believed in preventing unwanted pregnancy and not in policing society’s morals. Does anyone else feel a bit strange when they realise that their life and the changes they saw are now part of history?

[Bathsheba]

@woofgang....my experience with the FPA mirror yours exactly...we must be around the same age ;)

Baths
x x

[horselady]

In 1968 I had to give the doctor the date of my forthcoming wedding before she would prescribe the pill!! Seems ridiculous now.

[Bathsheba]

Lol horselady....and in light of the recent Tony Blackburn et al storylines,..did you (and Woofgang) think that we almost expected to be groped + teased by "dirty old men"? Cos I did.The workplace was full of it, and we didn't mind.

Baths
x x

[ummmm]

What has Tony Blackburn done besides getting the sack?

[Robinia]

Yes woofy (similar age ), I'm constantly reminded I'm historic :)
Where I was living in a sleepy town we were under the impression that the pill was for married women, maybe that wasn't true. I became pregnant in 1972 (unmarried) and was terrified but the only judgement, and as I later discovered, hypocrisy, I received was from my own mother. She did mellow.

[Bathsheba]

ummm, people my age remember listening to him on Radio Caroline, and were delighted when he was the 1st DJ to open Radio 1 ;)

Baths
x x

[Bathsheba]

p.s....never thought I would be defending TB, can't bear the man now ! :)

x x x

[ummmm]

But what has he done?

[Islay]

Ummmm as far as I can tell nothing !! other than not give the BBC investigators the answers they wanted!