0:00:06 > 0:00:08My name is Stephen McGann
0:00:08 > 0:00:11and I play Dr Patrick Turner in Call The Midwife.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16And you catch us at a really strange time of year.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18It's the final day of filming
0:00:18 > 0:00:20and it's all a bit like the circus is leaving town.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24You've got all the props men taking odd bits and pieces away.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26It's also a great time for reflection.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29I absolutely love this job.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35One of the things I really love about it is,
0:00:35 > 0:00:40although the stories that we tell are fictional, at their core,
0:00:40 > 0:00:44they're based upon the lives and experiences of real people.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47So, as we finish filming the latest series of Call The Midwife,
0:00:47 > 0:00:50I am starting my own personal journey to find out more
0:00:50 > 0:00:53about the stories behind this amazing show.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59It's a real privilege, I think, to bring new life into the world.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01This is absolutely lovely.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03- It's like a photograph of history. - Yes.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06I'm going to meet the real people
0:01:06 > 0:01:09behind some of the most moving stories we've told.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12One of the nurses just sort of took me to her.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14When she did sort of unwrap everything,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17I don't know if she was even aware that she'd looked at my limbs.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19She just looked at my face and said,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22"She's beautiful, she's mine, and always will be."
0:01:22 > 0:01:26And we'll take a sneak preview of some of the dramatic stories
0:01:26 > 0:01:28you'll soon see in the new series.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30- PARP! - That's quite sufficient,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32thank you, Abdul.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36We'll find out how the series came to be written...
0:01:37 > 0:01:41Midwives are present at almost every single birth in this country,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44and yet, the story had never been told.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47..and we'll be hearing from the writer and executive producer,
0:01:47 > 0:01:49Heidi Thomas.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52Every birth is a story that's waiting to unfold,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55and the midwife is there to write the beginning,
0:01:55 > 0:01:59the middle and the end of that story in her own very particular way.
0:01:59 > 0:02:00So when I got the chance to go
0:02:00 > 0:02:03and actually meet some of these people, I jumped at it.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08I wanted to find out the real stories behind Call The Midwife.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45Call The Midwife was originally based on
0:02:45 > 0:02:47the memoirs of Jennifer Worth.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51They tell of her time as a trainee midwife with an order of nuns
0:02:51 > 0:02:53in the East End of London.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55It was the early days of the NHS,
0:02:55 > 0:03:00and nuns were still pretty heavily involved in midwifery training.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04Sadly Jennifer, whose maiden name was Lee,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07passed away before our series started.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11Today, I've come to meet Antonia Bruce,
0:03:11 > 0:03:15a midwife who worked alongside Jennifer and knew her well.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17Jennifer and Antonia spent six months together
0:03:17 > 0:03:19training to become midwives
0:03:19 > 0:03:22with the nuns in this building here in Poplar.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24- Yeah.- So, it's 1958...
0:03:24 > 0:03:30- Yes.- ..and here you are, a young midwife, trainee,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34and you have come to this magnificent place.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38Now, on television, we know it as Nonnatus House.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40- Yes.- But what did you call it?
0:03:40 > 0:03:44- The Mission House.- And you began six months of your training?
0:03:44 > 0:03:47There was a wonderful ambience, wonderful place.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52The particular thrill for me talking to you is, you knew Jennifer Worth.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55- Yes.- And you'd shared time with her,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59um, and that small core of midwives
0:03:59 > 0:04:01on which the book was formed,
0:04:01 > 0:04:04on which a crystallising was based,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07- you were really a part of, weren't you?- Oh, yes. Absolutely.- Yes.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11- Was it a good time to be a midwife? - Much more than today.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14I mean, today, there's very little relationship with the midwife.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18I mean, we saw the patients before they had their babies, during...
0:04:18 > 0:04:20and then afterwards for 14 days.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23- Yes.- And it makes for a completely different relationship.
0:04:23 > 0:04:24Now, push, Rosemary.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27SHE SCREAMS
0:04:27 > 0:04:28Well done!
0:04:28 > 0:04:30SHE GASPS
0:04:30 > 0:04:31Well done!
0:04:33 > 0:04:35BABY CRIES
0:04:37 > 0:04:41Birth was not considered something abnormal, it wasn't a disease.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44- No.- And so no hospitals were ever mentioned,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47unless there was an emergency,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50and they were delivered at home, happily, relaxed.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53- Yeah.- And they had confidence in the midwife.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56'I suppose most of us drew our first breath
0:04:56 > 0:04:58'in the capable hands of a midwife.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00'If the birth is likely to be abnormal,
0:05:00 > 0:05:02'it should take place in hospital,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06'but, otherwise, the general medical view is that this natural function
0:05:06 > 0:05:10'is best carried out in the familiar surroundings of the home.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13'After all, babies WERE born before hospitals existed.'
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Was it a real vocation for you? Was it more than just a job?
0:05:18 > 0:05:20This was a very special place,
0:05:20 > 0:05:23and there was a religious background to everything, if you like.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27The routine of the sisters, and the chapel and things like that -
0:05:27 > 0:05:30to which we were included, if we wished to go.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33DEVOTIONAL SINGING
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Most of us were Christians, and Jenny was, too.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44But the work was... it was a vocation, you know?
0:05:44 > 0:05:48- Yes.- And so we really applied ourselves,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51and the outside world sort of disappeared, rather.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55A bit like firemen, there must have been times where you sat there going
0:05:55 > 0:05:58about your breakfast or your normal business and, all of a sudden,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00- the telephone would ring...- Mm-hm.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03..and suddenly, you had to burst into action.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05Oh, come on, stir your stumps.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07I'm first call, and you're coming with me.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11'As soon as they called, you were up and off.'
0:06:11 > 0:06:14It's in my case book that I was in Bow and I was in Poplar,
0:06:14 > 0:06:16and all these other places all around.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18We did a lot of cycling.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22There are between 80 and 100 babies born each month in Poplar.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27As soon as one vacates its pram, another one takes its place.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31And thus it was, and ever shall be.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33So, Antonia, this wonderful book -
0:06:33 > 0:06:36could you explain to me what this is and why you have it?
0:06:36 > 0:06:38Final exams.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42- Yes.- We had to present 12 cases that we had been responsible
0:06:42 > 0:06:47for the mother, the baby, so it's all recorded in here.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Mother, prenatal, labour, postnatal.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53But this is absolutely lovely.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55It's actually birth... the processes,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58as you're going round during the birth, you're...
0:06:58 > 0:07:01"Normal delivery. Living female infant.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03"In good condition, cried well."
0:07:03 > 0:07:04SHE LAUGHS
0:07:04 > 0:07:07It's wonderful, it's like a photograph of history.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09Yes. Yes.
0:07:09 > 0:07:10That somebody's life.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12- Yeah.- That's a new life in the world.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14Absolutely, a miracle.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17Oh, now, what is this wonderful thing here?
0:07:17 > 0:07:20- Tell me about that.- Well, this is what you would have called
0:07:20 > 0:07:23- an autograph album. - Yes.- It's a writing album here.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28And inside, I have writings from many different people,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32particularly, four nuns who were at Poplar, and Jenny,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34who is this first one in here.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37So Jenny wrote a little dedication in your book?
0:07:37 > 0:07:42- Yes.- Fantastic. "It was summer when I found you in the meadow long ago,
0:07:42 > 0:07:45"when the golden vetch was growing by the shore."
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Oh, it's by Jennifer Lee.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49These are fantastic.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51They were very special, the sisters,
0:07:51 > 0:07:53and I wanted a little record, you know.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55- Yes.- But they were very private,
0:07:55 > 0:07:57and they weren't allowed to give or take things.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01So by actually having their little writings in here is very special.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03That's beautiful. And you're absolutely right, of course,
0:08:03 > 0:08:05they don't have possessions.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09- No.- So their possessions are their minds and their hearts.- Mmm.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12"So, Lord, complete thy great design in me.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14"Give or reclaim thy gifts,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17"but let me be strong in thy strength
0:08:17 > 0:08:19"and with thy freedom, free."
0:08:19 > 0:08:21- It's lovely, that. - Voices from the past.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23Yes, absolutely.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27BACKGROUND CHATTER
0:08:27 > 0:08:29And back behind the scenes of Call The Midwife,
0:08:29 > 0:08:31I'm with someone else who knew Jennifer.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35- Completely focused on the child. - Completely focused on the child.
0:08:35 > 0:08:36- Yeah.- Pulse rate - very fast.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38How many seconds do I need for that?
0:08:38 > 0:08:41- We need a couple.- You need a few seconds...- Yeah, at least.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44..because it will take you about six seconds to get a count.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47Terri Coates is the midwife who helped Jennifer
0:08:47 > 0:08:49with the clinical accuracy in her books.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52..Is just to tilt the baby's head back slightly.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54She now works with us on set
0:08:54 > 0:08:58to ensure all the medical scenes look as realistic as possible.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02This is George, and he does sleep really well when he's asleep.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Shall we hold it and do one more?
0:09:04 > 0:09:06And...action.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11Come on, little one. Come on.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18No response to painful stimuli.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20Yes, let's try oxygen.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23Come on.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28'In fact, Jennifer Worth's memoirs were written in response
0:09:28 > 0:09:31'to an article Terri wrote for the Royal College of Midwives.'
0:09:31 > 0:09:35It goes back to 1998 when I was finishing a master's degree
0:09:35 > 0:09:40and I wanted to look at how midwives were perceived in literature.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42And it was pure professional narcissism.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46It was a sidestep away from a lot of the scientific books
0:09:46 > 0:09:48that I'd been reading.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51And I just wanted to read a novel, if I'm perfectly honest.
0:09:51 > 0:09:52And I was drawing a blank.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Midwives were the invisible force in literature.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58- They weren't there.- So you wanted to do something about it?
0:09:58 > 0:09:59How did you go about that?
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Well, from an 8,000-word rant,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06it got pared down to a more reasonable 1,500-word mutter,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09and it was published by the Royal College of Midwives.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12- So you sent out a clarion call... - I did.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15..to midwives to come back with some creative answer
0:10:15 > 0:10:17- to why midwives are invisible?- Yes.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20And Jennifer Worth was one of the people who wrote to me.
0:10:20 > 0:10:21And about 18 months later,
0:10:21 > 0:10:25she said that I had inspired her to write her memoirs,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29and she sent me her handwritten manuscript, which was wonderful.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31The stories leapt off the page.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34But sitting there as a midwifery lecturer,
0:10:34 > 0:10:37I really wanted to get my red pen onto the clinical parts of it,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40because there were lots of bits that she'd misremembered.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42I telephoned her and asked her
0:10:42 > 0:10:44if she would like me to edit some of the bits.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47She asked me to, "Edit all of it, please, dear."
0:10:47 > 0:10:48And I did.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Jennifer published her first book of memoirs in 2002.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59When I first read Jennifer Worth's memoirs,
0:10:59 > 0:11:02I thought they'd make fantastic television for many reasons.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05The stories themselves were so inherently dramatic.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07She had a great cast of characters
0:11:07 > 0:11:10and she was dealing with life-and-death issues
0:11:10 > 0:11:12in every chapter, but also the fact
0:11:12 > 0:11:16that midwifery itself had never been dramatised on television.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21I think the reason that I felt Heidi Thomas was the perfect person to
0:11:21 > 0:11:25adapt the books was because she, as a writer, combines the strengths
0:11:25 > 0:11:27that are needed for any great TV adaptation.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31She's incredibly passionate about what she does,
0:11:31 > 0:11:33her writing is very emotional,
0:11:33 > 0:11:38she's able to combine both tragedy and humour in every scene.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41Sister Mary Cynthia and I will take the district list today.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43Sorry, mad dash. Mrs Akintola's waters just broke
0:11:43 > 0:11:46and she's contracting every three minutes. Would you see to the board?
0:11:46 > 0:11:48Naturellement.
0:11:48 > 0:11:49The first time I met Jennifer,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52she already knew that I was going to be adapting her memoirs
0:11:52 > 0:11:55for television, so it was a bit like an arranged marriage.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57We HAD to get on. And indeed we did get on.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00I formed a lovely friendship with her over the first couple of years
0:12:00 > 0:12:02of us developing the scripts,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05and me conferring with her about the best way of putting the material
0:12:05 > 0:12:09she'd created onto the page for television drama.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12When we talked to Jennifer Worth about adapting her books,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16she very quickly realised that we would exhaust the material
0:12:16 > 0:12:18she'd written herself,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21and she loved the idea that the world that she had created
0:12:21 > 0:12:25could continue beyond the books, and have a life of its own.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27Nonnatus House, midwife speaking.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29Ah, and Nurse Gilbert has joined us.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31How very kind of you to spare the time.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34You can accompany Nurse Franklin.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37Maternity home for me. Mrs Mullucks' labour appears to be revving up.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43Jennifer's memoirs gave us most of the material we needed
0:12:43 > 0:12:46for the first series, which was only six episodes long.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49By the time the second series was commissioned,
0:12:49 > 0:12:53we realised that we probably had about 50% of the material we needed
0:12:53 > 0:12:56for that series, which was going to be eight episodes long
0:12:56 > 0:12:59and, therefore, it became obvious to me I was going to have to go out
0:12:59 > 0:13:04and gather material from real people, real sources, real midwives,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07and also go to work in archives and libraries.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19So now I'm off in search of some of the earliest midwifery sources.
0:13:24 > 0:13:25Wow.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29I'm here at the John Rylands Library in Manchester to meet midwife
0:13:29 > 0:13:31and historian Dr Janette Allotey.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35- Lovely to meet you.- And you. I've got some books to show you.
0:13:35 > 0:13:36Oh, fantastic.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38- Come with me.- You lead the way.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41Janette is an expert in the history of midwifery.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44So this is the first book that we've got.
0:13:44 > 0:13:45- Yes.- The Birth Of Mankind.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48The original one was written in 1513.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52The original was written in German and it was written in Latin and then
0:13:52 > 0:13:54it was translated from Latin into the English.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57There wasn't a natural English edition at the time?
0:13:57 > 0:14:00Did we have to go overseas to bring this back?
0:14:00 > 0:14:02Yes, that's right.
0:14:02 > 0:14:07A lot of the ancient birthing theory emanated from Greece.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10In all the years I've done Call The Midwife, to my shame,
0:14:10 > 0:14:12I don't actually know what the word means.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14Where does the word "midwife" actually come from?
0:14:14 > 0:14:16Well, it's from Middle English.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19It's a Germanic word and it means "with woman".
0:14:19 > 0:14:22- With woman.- Yes, which is what midwifery is about, isn't it?
0:14:22 > 0:14:24Being with women.
0:14:24 > 0:14:25The next book...
0:14:25 > 0:14:29The one that was written by a midwife for midwives,
0:14:29 > 0:14:33- and the first one in this country, written in 1671...- Wow!
0:14:33 > 0:14:36..was by a midwife called Jane Sharp.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40"The Midwives Book On The Whole Art Of Midwifry Discovered,
0:14:40 > 0:14:44"directing child-bearing women how to behave themselves."
0:14:44 > 0:14:45This is fantastic.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48So this was 1671.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51- Yes, yeah.- Who was Jane Sharp?
0:14:51 > 0:14:53Well, she was, um,
0:14:53 > 0:14:57a practising midwife of 30 years and she wanted to pass on
0:14:57 > 0:15:00some of her expertise to junior midwives.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03There are just two pictures in this book.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05- Really?- Yes. So it's interesting.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08She's describing anatomy without many diagrams.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11This is amazing. Look at this. So what we have is a...
0:15:13 > 0:15:17..a picture of a woman's anatomy, child-bearing.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19She looks rather mannish, actually.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22- She does, actually.- A bit like Michelangelo's David.- Yeah.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25- There's the other one.- So we have all these young men in the womb.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28So, yeah. We have these... They look like three-year-olds, don't they?
0:15:28 > 0:15:30They do. They look like, "What am I doing in this womb?"
0:15:30 > 0:15:33And they're very athletic. They've got lots of space, haven't they?
0:15:33 > 0:15:35- Enormous amounts of space!- We don't know what gestation they are.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38She did explain how to deliver these babies
0:15:38 > 0:15:41in various difficult positions.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44So, Janette, you were also a midwife.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46- Yes, yes.- How was that?
0:15:46 > 0:15:48It is wonderful. It's such a privilege.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50Is everyone special, though?
0:15:50 > 0:15:51- Yes.- Yeah.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54- And different.- Different. It must be different.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58You can get textbooks on midwifery but every case is different.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00Nobody fits the textbook.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05The joy of Call The Midwife is that
0:16:05 > 0:16:08everyone has their own unique birth story.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Man, woman or child, we were all brought into the world by someone.
0:16:15 > 0:16:20My own personal story begins here in the city where I was born -
0:16:20 > 0:16:21Liverpool.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27I've come back to meet a former nun and midwife whose own experiences
0:16:27 > 0:16:30echo a storyline close to my character's heart.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34But first, I'm taking the opportunity to visit the house
0:16:34 > 0:16:37where my own Call The Midwife story began.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42Here's a memory jogger.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45This is Birstall Road, Liverpool.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48All my childhood was here.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53And this is where I lived, number 4.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58There were five kids, a mum and dad.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00Seven of us in that house.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05And I was born in that room.
0:17:06 > 0:17:12And the reason was, just like Call The Midwife, my mum had me at home,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15delivered by a midwife on a bike,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19who drew up here on a really snowy night in a really bad mood,
0:17:19 > 0:17:21and had me.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26It was during the worst winter in Britain for over 200 years.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28The snow was apparently feet high.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31And she came through the snow on a bicycle
0:17:31 > 0:17:34and, apparently, my mum said she was in a really foul mood.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38So when she was delivering me, she was, well, really snappy.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40My mum said it was terrible.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43I think I came into this world apologising.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45I've probably been apologising ever since.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48There is a lovely story my brother Joe tells.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50It's one of his earliest memories.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54He was woken by the sound of me being born, and he came downstairs.
0:17:54 > 0:17:56It wasn't a very big house.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00So he came downstairs and my dad was sitting on the stairs, because he
0:18:00 > 0:18:03wasn't allowed in the room, just like in Call The Midwife.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07So Joe asked my dad what was going on and my dad took him back to bed
0:18:07 > 0:18:09and explained what was happening -
0:18:09 > 0:18:12that he was going to have a new little baby brother or sister.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16Now, my mum was one of those Call The Midwife women,
0:18:16 > 0:18:18and in that time, they married young,
0:18:18 > 0:18:20they had lots of children and they had to cope.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24When I was a kid, this street was full of children.
0:18:24 > 0:18:29We were caught up in this post-war baby boom and so every house had its
0:18:29 > 0:18:34own family and every family had its own character, and they would form
0:18:34 > 0:18:36natural football teams with kids in the street
0:18:36 > 0:18:39or rivals in a gang game,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42and it was wonderful. It was an absolute riot of noise.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44That's what's so different about that and today,
0:18:44 > 0:18:46where it's quite peaceful.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50But back then, that's the one abiding memory -
0:18:50 > 0:18:52action, games, footballs,
0:18:52 > 0:18:55tennis balls, everything happening all the time.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Just like the streets in Call The Midwife - children everywhere.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02And this was my handiwork.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07Done with tar. That was my friend, Mark.
0:19:07 > 0:19:12And this was the beginnings of "S" and an "M" here.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16Just like Dr Turner - still terrible doctor's handwriting back then.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21My own small criminal past.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28We weren't well-off by any means
0:19:28 > 0:19:31but there were people who had it much harder than us.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37One man who documented how hard life could be for some here in the '60s
0:19:37 > 0:19:39was photographer Nick Hedges.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44He was commissioned by the charity Shelter to photograph
0:19:44 > 0:19:47the harsh realities of the housing crisis across the UK.
0:19:47 > 0:19:48MUSIC: Daniella by Shack
0:19:48 > 0:19:51# I remember crossing a bridge
0:19:53 > 0:19:56# Yeah, Daniella and me
0:19:57 > 0:20:00# I remember Jack went away
0:20:01 > 0:20:07# And we followed him for seven days
0:20:10 > 0:20:13# All the pubs and bars he'd been in
0:20:16 > 0:20:20# All the shops and places that he'd seen... #
0:20:20 > 0:20:24So, Nick, these photographs were taken in 1969.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28Liverpool was the centre of the cultural world by then.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33- It was.- Yet these pictures look like they're out of Dickens.
0:20:33 > 0:20:34It's incredible.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39I think the housing crisis in the late '60s was disguised.
0:20:39 > 0:20:45A lot of families were trapped in very poor housing with not much hope
0:20:45 > 0:20:47of getting out of it.
0:20:47 > 0:20:52Did you see this kind of poverty repeated in other cities in England?
0:20:52 > 0:20:57Yeah. I mean, I think most of the major industrial cities of Britain
0:20:57 > 0:20:59in the late '60s and '70s
0:20:59 > 0:21:01were suffering from the same kind of malaise.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05Significant areas of real housing deprivation.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Did you ever get down to London or the East End?
0:21:08 > 0:21:10Oh, yeah. I used to live in London and the thing about London,
0:21:10 > 0:21:14as you know, is that it is this city of huge contrasts
0:21:14 > 0:21:18and I used to get the Tube to Whitechapel
0:21:18 > 0:21:23and I would emerge into a completely different world.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25The old East End.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30The old East End, full of tenement blocks and really poor housing.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32Yeah.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Families living on next to nothing.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36As a young child in the '60s,
0:21:36 > 0:21:39I remember those old soot-black houses,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42but they were already beginning to knock them all down around me
0:21:42 > 0:21:45- and put new housing up.- I mean, what had happened, of course,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48was those communities with quite strong bonds...
0:21:48 > 0:21:52- Yeah.- ..were being broken down... - Yeah.- ..by the demolition.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55And you found there were families living in multi-let accommodation
0:21:55 > 0:21:58where, previously, the houses weren't multi-let.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01- OK.- And you got people living in cellars, like Mrs Ditchfield here,
0:22:01 > 0:22:03I mean, with her daughter,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07and then other families living in a single room.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09It was dreadful.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12And especially when they were bringing new babies into the world
0:22:12 > 0:22:13and starting a new family.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17- Absolutely.- You had huge anxieties about the health of those children.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25If there was one thing
0:22:25 > 0:22:27those families could rely on,
0:22:27 > 0:22:29it was the nuns and midwives
0:22:29 > 0:22:32who worked here in Liverpool at the time,
0:22:32 > 0:22:33like Eleanor Stewart.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37- Eleanor.- Hi, Stephen.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40- Nice to meet you. - It is lovely to meet you.
0:22:40 > 0:22:41Lovely to meet you.
0:22:43 > 0:22:44Well, what do you make of this?
0:22:44 > 0:22:47- This is fantastic, isn't it?- Brings back memories.- Oh, doesn't it just?
0:22:47 > 0:22:49There's always been a close relationship
0:22:49 > 0:22:51between nuns and midwives.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54Even before Church licensing of midwives began in the 1500S,
0:22:54 > 0:22:57the nuns of many orders cared for mothers and babies
0:22:57 > 0:22:59in deprived communities.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02As late as the 1950s and '60s,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05some nuns still worked as midwives in the community,
0:23:05 > 0:23:07as they do in Call The Midwife.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Eleanor was one of those nuns.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14So where do you take a former nun to reminisce about the old days?
0:23:14 > 0:23:16The pub, of course!
0:23:17 > 0:23:20Here we are. Liverpool is swinging,
0:23:20 > 0:23:22so there's this impression and side to Liverpool
0:23:22 > 0:23:24like it's suddenly the centre of the world.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27- Yes.- But of course, there's another side to this city that I remember
0:23:27 > 0:23:29when I was a young child in the late '60s.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Did you come upon and see for yourself
0:23:32 > 0:23:35- the levels of poverty that were there?- Yes, I did.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40We delivered babies in, really, housing conditions that were quite,
0:23:40 > 0:23:42quite dreadful.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44Families living in one room.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48The women were amazingly resilient and, you know,
0:23:48 > 0:23:53just faced with such courage these awful conditions.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58There was a community spirit that was very strong amongst women.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00They supported each other, they helped each other.
0:24:00 > 0:24:02They looked after each other's children.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05Sometimes they even suckled each other's children.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08- Really?- Oh, yes, that was not uncommon at all.
0:24:08 > 0:24:09Oh, wow! What came first?
0:24:09 > 0:24:12Were you a nurse first before you were a nun?
0:24:12 > 0:24:13No, I was a nun first.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16I went to France and was a novitiate
0:24:16 > 0:24:18and then made my vows in France.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20Then I came back to do my general training
0:24:20 > 0:24:22and then, after three years,
0:24:22 > 0:24:24when I became a registered nurse,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26I then went to Liverpool Maternity Hospital.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Well, I think midwifery was really, for me,
0:24:29 > 0:24:30a kind of life-changing experience.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33I mean, I never went back to general nursing.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35Once I'd been a midwife, I stayed a midwife,
0:24:35 > 0:24:38and I just found it the most wonderful job.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41So, do you remember the first time you were confronted with a birth?
0:24:41 > 0:24:44Well, yeah, I mean, you had to witness so many births
0:24:44 > 0:24:47before you could actually be allowed to help,
0:24:47 > 0:24:49so wherever the nurses were,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52when a woman was in labour, about to give birth,
0:24:52 > 0:24:56a bell would ring, and then all the student midwives that needed to see
0:24:56 > 0:24:58deliveries would rush,
0:24:58 > 0:25:00so sometimes there would be eight or nine of us
0:25:00 > 0:25:03standing round the bottom of a bed
0:25:03 > 0:25:07while some poor lady, grunting and pushing... And they were lovely,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10they'd say, "Can you all see, girls? Can you all see?"
0:25:10 > 0:25:12And it was really hilarious!
0:25:12 > 0:25:15And then of course, the wonderful day happened
0:25:15 > 0:25:17when you had witnessed your ten deliveries.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20I mean, the first time I saw a birth,
0:25:20 > 0:25:23I just thought it was absolutely wonderful.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27I mean, Liverpool was an incredibly fertile city.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29- HE CHUCKLES - I mean, it really was.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32I mean, I think almost every hospital had a maternity unit.
0:25:32 > 0:25:37- I was surrounded by an aura of fecundity, I suppose.- Yes.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41- I had a baby in my arms some time of every day...- Yes.
0:25:41 > 0:25:46..and I became overwhelmed by the desire to have a child of my own,
0:25:46 > 0:25:48which, you know, clearly,
0:25:48 > 0:25:51sadly, is not compatible with a vow of chastity.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54- HE CHUCKLES - I mean, it just isn't, you know!
0:25:56 > 0:25:58There are some interesting parallels here.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00Yes, like Sister Bernadette, you know.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03People have sometimes said to me, "Did you meet somebody?"
0:26:03 > 0:26:05Well, no. It took me about three years to find a husband.
0:26:05 > 0:26:06THEY LAUGH
0:26:06 > 0:26:09- But...- But you knew he was out there somewhere?
0:26:09 > 0:26:11I knew he was out there somewhere. I just had to find him.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13I still dream about it.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17I dream that I'm having to make this awful, anguishing decision again,
0:26:17 > 0:26:20all over again. So that was a long time ago.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22I mean, I left in '69, so, you know,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25I'm still remembering that decision-making process
0:26:25 > 0:26:27and what it cost me.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33When Mother Henrietta put me on the train at Lime Street,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36she said, very noisily in the carriage,
0:26:36 > 0:26:40she put her head in the carriage and she said, "Now, dear," she said,
0:26:40 > 0:26:44"You're on your way," she said, "I know you want to have a baby."
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Every head in the carriage turned towards me.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50She said, "I know you want to have a baby," she said,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53"but do get a husband first. It's so much neater."
0:26:55 > 0:26:57You should be giving me away.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59You should be walking with me.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02You belong to no-one but yourself,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05and you know exactly where you're going.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14I think what I have come to understand about Call The Midwife
0:27:14 > 0:27:17is that it can be enjoyed on a number of levels.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21If you just want to flop down on a Sunday night and look at Trixie's
0:27:21 > 0:27:25frocks, and listen to the lovely music and maybe have a glass of wine
0:27:25 > 0:27:29and indulge yourself in an escapist treat, you can do that.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33Or you can dig right down to the deepest level, where we are telling
0:27:33 > 0:27:34stories about the human condition,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37and if you want to, you can really engage with that,
0:27:37 > 0:27:39not just matters of society or medicine
0:27:39 > 0:27:43but matters of human existence, of life and death and birth.
0:27:49 > 0:27:54Call The Midwife is set in the early days of the NHS, and my parents were
0:27:54 > 0:27:56lucky enough to be able to take advantage of it
0:27:56 > 0:27:59when their children were born.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01BIG BEN CHIMES
0:28:01 > 0:28:05'On July 5th, the new National Health Service starts,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09'providing hospital and specialist services, medicines,
0:28:09 > 0:28:12'drugs and appliances, care of the teeth and eyes.'
0:28:16 > 0:28:19I've come to Swansea to meet the very first child born
0:28:19 > 0:28:22on the day the NHS started in July 1948.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26Aneira, I just love your name.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29- Thank you.- What's the story behind it?
0:28:29 > 0:28:34My mother used to relay the story back to me as I was growing up
0:28:34 > 0:28:36and all I can remember, as a child,
0:28:36 > 0:28:38she used to introduce me as Nye,
0:28:38 > 0:28:40"This is Nye, my National Health baby."
0:28:40 > 0:28:42She'd had a long, hard labour
0:28:42 > 0:28:46and she was about to give birth to me on the night
0:28:46 > 0:28:49of 4th July, around midnight,
0:28:49 > 0:28:53and the doctor had to be called and the nurse - two nurses were there -
0:28:53 > 0:28:58and she said they were watching the clock and she was about to push,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01because she was used to hearing the word "push"
0:29:01 > 0:29:03on all her other six children,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06but all she could hear was, "Hold on, Edna. Hold on."
0:29:06 > 0:29:08Because that particular day
0:29:08 > 0:29:12was going to be a very big day for Great Britain -
0:29:12 > 0:29:14it was the birth of the National Health Service.
0:29:14 > 0:29:19So, after midnight, the new National Health Service came into being.
0:29:19 > 0:29:20Into fruition, yes.
0:29:20 > 0:29:25So... And the man who brought it into Great Britain
0:29:25 > 0:29:28for the people of Great Britain, his name was Aneurin Bevan.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31Wonderful man. And hence the name.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36So the doctors asked my mother, "Please, can we name her Aneira?"
0:29:36 > 0:29:39After the founder. And she liked the name.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42- And the actual medics and the doctors...- Yes, named me.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49Aneurin Bevan knew all about ill-health and poverty.
0:29:51 > 0:29:53Born in the Welsh Valleys,
0:29:53 > 0:29:57like so many, he left school at 13 to work in the mines.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02The scenes he witnessed inspired him
0:30:02 > 0:30:05to create a new health care system for all.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07But not everyone was in favour.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10Many doctors at the time,
0:30:10 > 0:30:12represented by the British Medical Association,
0:30:12 > 0:30:16feared for their livelihoods and opposed State control.
0:30:18 > 0:30:20But Bevan outmanoeuvred them,
0:30:20 > 0:30:24first, conceding that they could still see some patients privately.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27At the same time, he encouraged the public
0:30:27 > 0:30:29to preregister for the new service,
0:30:29 > 0:30:31which they did in their millions.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36Faced with the enormous popularity of the new NHS,
0:30:36 > 0:30:39the BMA had no option but to fall in line.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44- Look at that.- Yeah. The original.
0:30:44 > 0:30:465th July 1948.
0:30:46 > 0:30:48- Yeah.- And this is you.
0:30:48 > 0:30:50That's what they named me, Aneira.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54- Yeah.- It's the feminine form of Aneurin, after Aneurin Bevan.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57And this is the first birth certificate
0:30:57 > 0:30:59- of the brand-new NHS. - Yes, the NHS.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02If I had been born one minute before midnight,
0:31:02 > 0:31:05they'd have had to pay one shilling and sixpence.
0:31:05 > 0:31:06- Really?- Yes.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08And of course, after, it was free.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11- Yes.- And one shilling and sixpence in those days
0:31:11 > 0:31:15must have been a lot of money, because we were seven children.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18- That's right.- Dad was a miner, not earning very much money,
0:31:18 > 0:31:21so that one shilling and sixpence could have meant food...
0:31:21 > 0:31:23extra food for one day.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26Lips pinking up and the baby's still breathing.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28Oh, thank God.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30I'm all for giving medals to the gentleman upstairs, sir,
0:31:30 > 0:31:33but in this case, credit should go to the National Health.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35Ten years ago, we would have had none of this.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39No obstetric flying squad, no ambulance and no chance.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41- Placenta's complete, sir. - Stabilising.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44She'll need a further transfusion but we can do that here.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47Right, let's take this little chap, get him sorted out.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52What was your mother's life like before that era of the NHS?
0:31:52 > 0:31:54Was there a big difference for her?
0:31:54 > 0:31:56The health care then was for the privileged few,
0:31:56 > 0:31:59so they couldn't afford health care.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01My mother remembers her father being...
0:32:01 > 0:32:03remembers looking out through the parlour window
0:32:03 > 0:32:06and she'd seen her father being carried home from the mines
0:32:06 > 0:32:09by two men. He had broken his leg in three places.
0:32:09 > 0:32:11And she said they brought him in
0:32:11 > 0:32:13and they laid him down on the kitchen table.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17The doctor had to be called and the doctor said to all the children,
0:32:17 > 0:32:21"I need your help to hold your father down," and the two men
0:32:21 > 0:32:24and the doctor had to operate on his leg without anaesthetic.
0:32:24 > 0:32:30- What?!- They must have had ether. And she lived until she was 95
0:32:30 > 0:32:33and she always used to say, and put her hands to her ear,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36she used to say, "Darling, I can hear those screams today."
0:32:36 > 0:32:38And how old was she when she heard those screams?
0:32:38 > 0:32:40- About 13.- Oh, what an experience!
0:32:40 > 0:32:42Yes, the other children were small.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44- Yeah.- What a terrible experience.
0:32:44 > 0:32:46They couldn't pay the doctor.
0:32:46 > 0:32:50There was no money to pay the doctor and the only thing they could do was
0:32:50 > 0:32:53sell the family piano, and that piano was everything,
0:32:53 > 0:32:57because Mum was a pianist, so she remembers the children crying
0:32:57 > 0:33:00as the piano was being carried out to sell.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03- A sad story.- It is, isn't it? - Sad story.- Yeah.
0:33:03 > 0:33:05Oh, this is an amazing picture.
0:33:05 > 0:33:07- It is, isn't it?- Who is this?
0:33:07 > 0:33:10Well, this would be my great-grandmother.
0:33:10 > 0:33:11Her name was Hannah.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14And she was the local midwife.
0:33:14 > 0:33:16She was the lady they used to send for
0:33:16 > 0:33:18when mothers were about to give birth.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21I'd love to close my eyes and go back in time
0:33:21 > 0:33:23- and have seen what she was like. - When was this?
0:33:23 > 0:33:25What year was this, roughly?
0:33:25 > 0:33:29- I think it must have been the early 1900s or the late 1800s.- Wow!
0:33:29 > 0:33:32- Yeah.- But she's not a professional at this time?
0:33:32 > 0:33:35- No.- She's just a local person trusted by everybody else.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39Yeah, trusted, yeah. Because she'd had ten of her own children,
0:33:39 > 0:33:40I suppose.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44So, Aneira, as the great National Health baby...
0:33:46 > 0:33:52..if you could describe the NHS in one word, what word would that be?
0:33:54 > 0:33:56Revolutionary.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02And in the 1960s,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05the East End of London was going through a social revolution.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09In recent series of Call The Midwife,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12we've been really keen to reflect the changing face of the East End,
0:34:12 > 0:34:15which, in turn, means reflecting the changing face of Britain.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17In the last episode of series five,
0:34:17 > 0:34:20Barbara went to the home of a woman called Tripti Valluk,
0:34:20 > 0:34:23who is a recent arrival in the country.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26She is from the Sylhet area of Bangladesh and she's giving birth
0:34:26 > 0:34:28to her first baby in quite sort of grubby
0:34:28 > 0:34:30and difficult domestic circumstances.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33That's absolutely perfect, Tripti.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36- Khub bhalo.- Dhonnobad.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39There's no need to thank me, Muna. It's all part of the job.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43Now, let's get you on the bed and see if we can have a listen to baby.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48Mr Valluk, I beg your pardon, are you working shifts again?
0:34:50 > 0:34:52I'm sorry, but...
0:34:53 > 0:34:55- ..he will not look.- It's all right.
0:34:55 > 0:35:00Once I delivered a baby with the father fast asleep beside his wife
0:35:00 > 0:35:03but he was drunk, and Mr Valluk just looks tired.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09It's not the home we left but it is a new home.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14That is why I want the baby born here, in my bed.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17And if that is what you want, that is what you shall have.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19It's a very beautiful birth
0:35:19 > 0:35:21and there is a very beautiful aftermath to the birth.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24We show her being bathed by candlelight because the family
0:35:24 > 0:35:26have run out of money for the gas meter.
0:35:26 > 0:35:28But I think that, with the arrival of that little girl,
0:35:28 > 0:35:31we're showing something about the birth of the Asian population
0:35:31 > 0:35:32in our country.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36I think this young lady has been here before.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40Maybe not in this continent...
0:35:40 > 0:35:42maybe not in weather like this,
0:35:42 > 0:35:44but she's been here.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50And it did occur to me that a really important part
0:35:50 > 0:35:54of British social history was the rise of mixed-race marriage
0:35:54 > 0:35:57and so the Antoines have a father from Jamaica
0:35:57 > 0:36:00and a mother who is white and from the East End.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03I was at school with Kerry Antoine's sister, June.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07She came into assembly with her eyes bright red from crying one day,
0:36:07 > 0:36:08wouldn't say why.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11It was my mum who told me Kerry was going to marry a black man.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14No-one can really choose who they fall in love with.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17I certainly don't like some of the things I've heard said to those
0:36:17 > 0:36:19little Antoine lads at Cubs.
0:36:19 > 0:36:21They're only repeating what they've heard at home
0:36:21 > 0:36:25but I've clamped down, nonetheless.
0:36:25 > 0:36:27CHATTERING
0:36:27 > 0:36:31And as we see in these exclusive scenes from our new series,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35Nurse Crane is determined to promote integration.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39She encourages the Cubs in her charge to welcome and value
0:36:39 > 0:36:41every new member of the community.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46- Pack, pack, pack!- Pack!- Pack!
0:36:46 > 0:36:48Take a seat, boys.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53- PARP! - That's quite sufficient,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56thank you, Abdul. Now, tonight,
0:36:56 > 0:36:58we're going to take it in turns to step to the front
0:36:58 > 0:37:02and show all the other Cubs our treasures from home.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06It's a chance to practise our public speaking and learn new things.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11And we're going to start with Lenny Wesley
0:37:11 > 0:37:15and Jerome Antoine talking about something very important.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20This is our baby brother, Delamere.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24He was born last week and he has pale-brown skin, like us,
0:37:24 > 0:37:28because our mum is from Poplar and our dad is from Jamaica.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32Everybody looks a bit like their mum and a bit like their dad.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34You might have blue eyes like one of your parents,
0:37:34 > 0:37:37and blond or ginger hair like the other one.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40Mostly, we think Delamere looks like us.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43You can come a bit closer if you like.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46And if you're lucky, he might squeeze your finger.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53There's something very special about newborn babies.
0:37:53 > 0:37:55They're so tiny and so fragile
0:37:55 > 0:37:57and every time we have a baby on the set,
0:37:57 > 0:38:01it becomes a little bit like a wildlife movie, everybody whispers.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04And even quite hardened cameramen become very tender and very quiet in
0:38:04 > 0:38:08their movements and I must confess, I often try and create a scenario
0:38:08 > 0:38:11whereby it is imperative that the executive producer
0:38:11 > 0:38:14gets to hold the baby as part of her morning's work.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16And those are very good days in the office.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20- Do you want to hold him? - I'd love to.- There we go.
0:38:20 > 0:38:22Hello.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26What I'd like to do, I was just saying to Terri,
0:38:26 > 0:38:29I'd like to have a party and invite all of the babies we've ever had,
0:38:29 > 0:38:31because I think it's more than 90 children.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33- Yeah.- Oh, it would, wouldn't it?
0:38:33 > 0:38:36- It would be so nice.- And some of them would be about six.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40And you, young man, you'll be one of the youngest.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42You will. Look at that.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46I don't think birth has ever been depicted on the literary page
0:38:46 > 0:38:49with as much attention to detail as it was by Jennifer Worth.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52I was really keen to keep this with the television series.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56We go into that intimate space with a great deal of scientific detail
0:38:56 > 0:38:58and we've been hugely helped in that
0:38:58 > 0:39:01by our consultant midwife Terri Coates.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04So, Terri, this is our clinical room.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08It is, and I've come here to put this little one down
0:39:08 > 0:39:10and wrap her up again.
0:39:10 > 0:39:12Aren't they incredible, these models?
0:39:12 > 0:39:16They are. Do you know, I'm just always amazed at how beautiful
0:39:16 > 0:39:19these babies are. But they are prosthetics.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23Yeah, some people can be quite taken aback by them...
0:39:23 > 0:39:26- They can.- Because they are so... - They're so realistic.- So lifelike.
0:39:26 > 0:39:28So lifelike. And they've got everything,
0:39:28 > 0:39:31down to their little fingers, just spot-on.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34What always gets me about your mastery of all the instruments
0:39:34 > 0:39:37that we have to use is, you don't just have to know what you know as a
0:39:37 > 0:39:41midwife nowadays, but you have to go back in time to use the instruments
0:39:41 > 0:39:43that they used in the '50s and '60s.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46But do you know what? An awful lot of them haven't changed.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48For basic midwifery, the instruments haven't really changed.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50One thing that has changed, of course,
0:39:50 > 0:39:52- is the amazing prosthetics...- Yeah.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54..that we've developed over the last few years
0:39:54 > 0:39:57and the cords that go with the prosthetic dolls.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00Yes, the umbilicals, one of our specialties.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04They really make the birth so much more real.
0:40:04 > 0:40:06You can attach these to the baby's abdomen
0:40:06 > 0:40:10and it gives them an amazingly realistic result.
0:40:10 > 0:40:11Yes!
0:40:11 > 0:40:14WOMAN GASPS
0:40:17 > 0:40:20I love it when it works, because you once said to me,
0:40:20 > 0:40:22"That's when I get moved."
0:40:22 > 0:40:24I watched you. I saw you crying once and I was surprised.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27- Just once?- Because it's pretend!
0:40:27 > 0:40:30I said, "But you midwife real babies."
0:40:30 > 0:40:33And I remembered you saying to me, you know,
0:40:33 > 0:40:35- "It's because looks right."- Yes.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38And is that what you aim for? As long as it looks right enough.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40If it looks right, it feels right
0:40:40 > 0:40:42and that's the point at which I'm moved.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50This is one of those things which is a timeless...
0:40:50 > 0:40:52It is, and that's actually mine.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56- That's been with me since I was a student midwife.- Oh!
0:40:56 > 0:40:58I'm sure you've see me use that before.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01- But this is actually yours? - That's mine with my name on, yeah.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04- And this is a peen-ard. - Pinnard.- Pinnard.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07- Sorry. Let's get the phraseology right.- Yeah.
0:41:07 > 0:41:08Yes. And that's to listen to...
0:41:08 > 0:41:11Because, of course, back then,
0:41:11 > 0:41:13we didn't have the scans that we have now.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16No, in 1962, it would have been perfectly normal to use X-rays.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19We used them far more then than we do now.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21Wow. Was that safe, by modern standards?
0:41:21 > 0:41:24It was safe by the standards of 1962, yes.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28And we still use these now. We use these to locate the foetal heart,
0:41:28 > 0:41:32and then use the electronic devices now, we have the sonic aids.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36- Yeah.- And we use these to listen over the baby's back.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39So if we're using it on a prosthetic abdomen,
0:41:39 > 0:41:42the midwife will still have to palpate
0:41:42 > 0:41:45to find where the foetal heart is
0:41:45 > 0:41:48and she will use it sort of lined up -
0:41:48 > 0:41:51so imagine that the baby's head was round about here,
0:41:51 > 0:41:55the baby's bottom would be here and the back would be there,
0:41:55 > 0:41:56so you would listen round about there.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01Absolutely beautiful.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04You say that as if you've never heard it before.
0:42:04 > 0:42:09I haven't for a while. I've been mainly on district nursing duty.
0:42:10 > 0:42:16Now, in the early '60s, you had revolutions beginning to happen...
0:42:16 > 0:42:21Um, I was speaking to a midwife only last week
0:42:21 > 0:42:23about the advent of the Pill,
0:42:23 > 0:42:28the advent of the '60s - you had everything changing.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30How big an effect
0:42:30 > 0:42:34on you and your work was the advent of the pill?
0:42:34 > 0:42:36The advent of the pill was enormous,
0:42:36 > 0:42:39not specifically for midwifes but for women in general.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41The pill was enormous
0:42:41 > 0:42:44and it gave women control of their fertility,
0:42:44 > 0:42:47which really gives them control of their lives
0:42:47 > 0:42:49and allowed them to space their families.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54The first British trials of the pill took place
0:42:54 > 0:42:58at the family planning clinic in Birmingham in 1960.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02It proved to be extremely popular...
0:43:02 > 0:43:04and highly controversial.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10So, the contraceptive pill.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14Licensed for distribution within weeks.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17It's been talked about for so long, it's hardly a surprise.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19No.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21But it is a challenge.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23Of course it's a challenge, Sister.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26Antibiotics were a challenge once.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28Antibiotics were also a miracle.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31And you think the contraceptive pill isn't?
0:43:33 > 0:43:36It's a miracle with moral implications, Dr Turner.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38Take-up was fast.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42By 1969, a million women were taking it.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44Jennifer Worth wrote,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47"As soon as they could take contraception into their own hands,
0:43:47 > 0:43:48"they did."
0:43:48 > 0:43:52Even Sister Julienne is coming to terms with this new reality -
0:43:52 > 0:43:54as we see in this clip from our new series.
0:43:56 > 0:44:01I was told today that the family contraceptive clinics were launching
0:44:01 > 0:44:04district clinics in an attempt to cut down waiting lists.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06I hope there's going to be one in our clinic.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08We're going to get one in our community centre.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12On Tuesday afternoons, in the small room at the back.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15It's been suggested that patients use the side door.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18But the unmarried mothers use the side door.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21Why can't everyone come in at the front?
0:44:21 > 0:44:23They are just women, not criminals.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26I don't think you need to use quite such strong terms, Nurse Dyer.
0:44:26 > 0:44:27I'm sorry, Sister.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30But everyone coming to that clinic is married or about to be,
0:44:30 > 0:44:32those are the rules.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35So why should they be made to feel ashamed or even embarrassed?
0:44:35 > 0:44:38Men have been buying contraception from the barber's for years.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41Apparently. A short back and sides and then something for the weekend.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44Women should be able to take care of their health
0:44:44 > 0:44:45in exactly the same way.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48"I'll have a perm and the contraceptive pill."
0:44:48 > 0:44:49THEY LAUGH
0:44:49 > 0:44:53I shall be assisting the doctor for the first few weeks,
0:44:53 > 0:44:58so I will have the chance to make up my own opinion on such matters.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08As we entered the 1960s, faith in new medical advancements was high.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14Drugs were tackling the old killers - diphtheria, TB, polio -
0:45:14 > 0:45:17there seemed to be a wonder drug for every ill.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22But the world was about to learn of the terrible side-effects
0:45:22 > 0:45:25caused by one of them - thalidomide.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32Rosaleen Moriarty-Simmonds was one of the thousands of people affected by the drug.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36My mum had not long turned 18.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39She was 17 when I was conceived
0:45:39 > 0:45:44and two months into...after her 18th birthday when I was born.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49My mum had horrific morning sickness.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52Um, she was only 17,
0:45:52 > 0:45:58pregnant out of wedlock and I guess the whole lot was too much
0:45:58 > 0:46:02for her to handle and Thalidomide is a sleeping tablet.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06You go along to a doctor, she explained she was struggling,
0:46:06 > 0:46:10I suppose, and not sleeping, and she was prescribed Thalidomide,
0:46:10 > 0:46:13which, at the time, nobody knew, of course, what the consequences would be.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19One as necessary, just as you've been taking them.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21I'll tell you what, every woman in the family way
0:46:21 > 0:46:24is going to be banging your doors down for these.
0:46:24 > 0:46:26What's that magic stuff in them again?
0:46:26 > 0:46:28The tablets are known as Distaval.
0:46:28 > 0:46:30The magic ingredient is called Thalidomide.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35Well, better get some more in - I'm going to spread the word.
0:46:35 > 0:46:36Shall we?
0:46:36 > 0:46:40I was a medical student in Cardiff in the early '60s.
0:46:40 > 0:46:42Rosaleen's mother was allocated to me
0:46:42 > 0:46:46and she was only 18 years old at the time
0:46:46 > 0:46:50and very ill with pre-eclamptic toxaemia.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53We went through the day
0:46:53 > 0:46:57and, in the evening, I think it was Sunday evening, I have that feeling,
0:46:57 > 0:47:01the senior sister said, "I will examine her now.
0:47:01 > 0:47:06"Probably there is no progress and we'll make her comfortable for the night."
0:47:08 > 0:47:14And she examined her and she said, suddenly, "Dear, scrub! She's fully dilated!"
0:47:14 > 0:47:16I felt for the umbilical cord,
0:47:16 > 0:47:18which was not present, around her neck,
0:47:18 > 0:47:21but it didn't...
0:47:21 > 0:47:26The anatomy didn't feel right and, when I was meditating on this,
0:47:26 > 0:47:30Sister said, "Ease the anterior shoulder, dear."
0:47:30 > 0:47:31I said, "She hasn't got one."
0:47:31 > 0:47:34And, with which, baby appeared.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39Announcing her very healthy and vigorous,
0:47:39 > 0:47:44but with malformations that caused everybody...
0:47:44 > 0:47:46For an instant, there was such a silence.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51- Baby's a bit chilly, Rhoda.- Ah.
0:47:51 > 0:47:52I'm going to pop to the nursery with her
0:47:52 > 0:47:55and just put her under the heat lamp for a minute or two.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58I don't think this particular problem had been observed,
0:47:58 > 0:48:00certainly in Cardiff, I don't think so,
0:48:00 > 0:48:02from what I picked up afterwards.
0:48:03 > 0:48:05Has Rhoda Mullucks delivered?
0:48:05 > 0:48:06A little girl.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12I saw Mrs Moriarty in two or three days.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15She was wonderful, instant bonding, you know, and no...
0:48:18 > 0:48:21Wonderful, really. She said to me,
0:48:21 > 0:48:23"I shall need to give her a very pretty name," she said,
0:48:23 > 0:48:25"and I'm going to call her Rosaleen."
0:48:38 > 0:48:39Oh, love.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43SHE SNIFFS
0:48:43 > 0:48:44What a mess.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50What a mess, eh?
0:48:52 > 0:48:54SHE SNIFFS
0:48:56 > 0:48:58We'll sort something out.
0:49:00 > 0:49:01I promise.
0:49:03 > 0:49:04Because you're mine.
0:49:06 > 0:49:07Mine.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10And I'm not bailing out on you.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16So one of the nurses just sort of took me to her,
0:49:16 > 0:49:20completely wrapped up with just my face showing, and when she did sort
0:49:20 > 0:49:24of unwrap everything, I don't know if she was even aware that she'd looked at my limbs,
0:49:24 > 0:49:26she just looked at my face and said,
0:49:26 > 0:49:29"She's beautiful, she's mine and always will be."
0:49:30 > 0:49:33I've always been very interested in the notion of families with a
0:49:33 > 0:49:36disabled child at their heart because, in 1970,
0:49:36 > 0:49:38I became the elder sister to a little boy
0:49:38 > 0:49:41who was born with very severe disabilities -
0:49:41 > 0:49:42that's my brother, David.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45Although I was only seven years older than him,
0:49:45 > 0:49:47I was seven years older than him
0:49:47 > 0:49:50and I very much remember the impact this had on my parents.
0:49:50 > 0:49:52They, like the parents of the Thalidomide children,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56were the first generation to raise their disabled children
0:49:56 > 0:49:59in a home environment without necessarily having the support
0:49:59 > 0:50:01from society that they needed.
0:50:01 > 0:50:07I was one of the about 45% of the Thalidomide-impaired babies
0:50:07 > 0:50:11that was kept, loved and nurtured.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14Sadly, a lot more were abandoned.
0:50:14 > 0:50:16My parents, I think,
0:50:16 > 0:50:19were actually very brave because they did go on to have more children,
0:50:19 > 0:50:23even though the fact that I was the eldest and clearly born disabled,
0:50:23 > 0:50:28and they still didn't know what the cause of it was until my mum...
0:50:28 > 0:50:34less than 12 months later, was pregnant with my sister, Deborah, who...
0:50:34 > 0:50:39Actually, there's only 16 months between us and she was in hospital
0:50:39 > 0:50:45under a professor because of, of course, the situation with my birth,
0:50:45 > 0:50:49and he brought the Lancet, the medical paper,
0:50:49 > 0:50:54along and in it was a letter from another doctor saying that
0:50:54 > 0:50:59there'd been an influx of babies born with similar impairments to mine
0:50:59 > 0:51:02and they believed that it was possibly the drug Thalidomide.
0:51:05 > 0:51:09It was this letter written by Australian medic William McBride
0:51:09 > 0:51:12that alerted doctors that Thalidomide had caused birth defects
0:51:12 > 0:51:15to over 10,000 children worldwide.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21Deformed babies have been born in our district.
0:51:23 > 0:51:24We need to speak to someone...
0:51:26 > 0:51:28..and then we need to act.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31Distival was withdrawn in 1961.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34When I was researching the Thalidomide story,
0:51:34 > 0:51:38I was really struck by how many people were touched by this scandal,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41by that drug, other than the parents themselves and the babies.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45The caregivers were deeply affected and doctors, obviously,
0:51:45 > 0:51:47such as Dr Turner.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51I was once at a literary festival and a lady came up to me and said quite quietly,
0:51:51 > 0:51:54"I was a nursing sister in a cottage hospital when the news
0:51:54 > 0:51:58"about Thalidomide broke," and she said, "I so remember driving round,
0:51:58 > 0:52:03"knocking on doors, trying to get those tablets back from expectant mothers."
0:52:03 > 0:52:04- Mr Tunicliffe?- Yes.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06May I speak to your wife?
0:52:06 > 0:52:09It's regarding a problem with her prescription medication.
0:52:16 > 0:52:17Mrs Michaels?
0:52:24 > 0:52:27I'd wanted to cover the story of Thalidomide for quite a long time.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31When the idea first came into my head, I think we were only on about series two.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35It's such an intrinsic part of medical history and so important
0:52:35 > 0:52:38to the history of disabled people in our society, but I realised
0:52:38 > 0:52:42that we would have to wait until series five, if we got that far,
0:52:42 > 0:52:47because it was only in December of 1961 that it was made publicly clear
0:52:47 > 0:52:48the damage that the drug was causing.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52Prior to that, babies were being born with terrible anomalies,
0:52:52 > 0:52:55but the dots weren't being joined up and people didn't realise.
0:52:55 > 0:52:57So we knew that it would have to be series five,
0:52:57 > 0:53:00which would be set in 1961.
0:53:00 > 0:53:05The way it was portrayed in Call The Midwife was exceptional,
0:53:05 > 0:53:12and it has educated and got to a lot more people than even a documentary
0:53:12 > 0:53:13or a newspaper article would.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16Thank you.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31One of the things that I was very struck by as the sibling of a child with disabilities
0:53:31 > 0:53:35was how poor educational provision was in the '60s and even into
0:53:35 > 0:53:38the 1970s for children with special needs.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42And talking to my Thalidomide friends and the people who help us
0:53:42 > 0:53:45with research, this was a subject that came up again and again
0:53:45 > 0:53:48that once the children who were reared by their parents
0:53:48 > 0:53:52and weren't brought up in institutions were no longer babies,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55the provision was not there for them that other children had.
0:53:55 > 0:53:56She's only 18 months!
0:53:56 > 0:53:59I was just trying to put her name down for when she's three,
0:53:59 > 0:54:01like I put Belinda's name down and Perry's.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03And Mrs Bathgate refused point blank?
0:54:03 > 0:54:07She said she couldn't take sick children.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10Did you explain to her that Susan isn't ill?
0:54:10 > 0:54:13I told Mrs Bathgate to speak to you.
0:54:13 > 0:54:14She's going to need an education.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17The Thalidomide didn't do anything to her brain.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19As far as my parents were concerned,
0:54:19 > 0:54:22getting a good education was absolutely paramount.
0:54:22 > 0:54:27It was 1970 before disabled people even had a right to an academic education,
0:54:27 > 0:54:31so any disabled people that were educated before that
0:54:31 > 0:54:33were incredibly lucky, really.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36I did get a good education.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40I finished off with a degree from Cardiff University.
0:54:40 > 0:54:41I think, at the end of the day,
0:54:41 > 0:54:47you make of life what you choose to make of life and, as Dr Valerie,
0:54:47 > 0:54:50I'm sure, will tell you at some stage, I came out loud -
0:54:50 > 0:54:52I'm going out even louder!
0:54:53 > 0:54:57Our remit at Call The Midwife is to give a voice to people
0:54:57 > 0:55:02who have experienced great and beautiful and terrible things
0:55:02 > 0:55:05and never had a voice before.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08We are somehow digging up lives that were silent
0:55:08 > 0:55:11and we're shining a light on lives that were experienced,
0:55:11 > 0:55:13if not in darkness at the time,
0:55:13 > 0:55:16that were very quickly sort of vanished into the mists of history
0:55:16 > 0:55:20afterwards and I just love that idea that with every year that goes round,
0:55:20 > 0:55:22with every episode, that I sit down,
0:55:22 > 0:55:24with this kind of blank page and I think,
0:55:24 > 0:55:26"Whose story am I going to tell today?"
0:55:26 > 0:55:29There will be this little voice or this hand that goes up
0:55:29 > 0:55:33in the mists of history and says, "Me, tell my story."
0:55:38 > 0:55:40So, when I started out on this journey,
0:55:40 > 0:55:46I was very keen to meet some of the real people behind the world of
0:55:46 > 0:55:48Call The Midwife and, in doing so,
0:55:48 > 0:55:51I wanted to try and maybe tap into some of the reasons
0:55:51 > 0:55:53why our programme was such a success.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59And I think I've found that but I've found out so much more.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03You know, when people talk about Call The Midwife,
0:56:03 > 0:56:07that the reason it's successful is it's nostalgic,
0:56:07 > 0:56:10it's about the audience looking back in time at something,
0:56:10 > 0:56:14some sort of perfect ideal world that never really existed,
0:56:14 > 0:56:17but I've never thought that was true.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20How can it be nostalgic
0:56:20 > 0:56:26to show and depict scenes of such incredible grinding poverty?
0:56:26 > 0:56:29Of children living in appalling conditions?
0:56:29 > 0:56:34Or a family suffering the agonies of the effects of Thalidomide?
0:56:34 > 0:56:40When you apply care in our society, it doesn't just happen by accident.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43To care for a baby as soon as it comes into the world,
0:56:43 > 0:56:47like the midwife who holds a new child,
0:56:47 > 0:56:49or, in a more large organised way,
0:56:49 > 0:56:52to create a huge system like the National Health Service -
0:56:52 > 0:56:55that can look after people from the cradle to the grave -
0:56:55 > 0:56:58that doesn't just happen by default, it has to be built.
0:56:58 > 0:57:03Like an architect, you have to build it up into this huge cathedral of care.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06But that is done stone by stone by individual people
0:57:06 > 0:57:10and that's the way it happened in our country.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13It happened by individual men and women
0:57:13 > 0:57:17applying their whole lives to the care of others.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20What these people I've met have shown me
0:57:20 > 0:57:23is that we have all of these wonderful things around us,
0:57:23 > 0:57:25the things we take for granted,
0:57:25 > 0:57:28because of the contributions of those real people.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31I think we should all be very grateful to them
0:57:31 > 0:57:35and I am certainly very privileged to have met just a few of them.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03Subtitles by Ericsson