Jennifer Worth

Call The Midwife: A True Story Of The East End In The 1950S

Notify me when the book’s added
To read this book, upload an EPUB or FB2 file to Bookmate. How do I upload a book?
An unforgettable story of the joy of motherhood, the bravery of a community, and the hope of one extraordinary woman

<empty-line />
At the age of twenty-two, Jennifer Worth leaves her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in post war London's East End slums. The colorful characters she meets while delivering babies all over London-from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lives to the woman with twenty-four children who can't speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city's seedier side-illuminate a fascinating time in history. Beautifully written and utterly moving, The Midwife will touch the hearts of anyone who is, and everyone who has, a mother.

<empty-line />
This book is currently unavailable
421 printed pages
Have you already read it? How did you like it?
👍👎

Impressions

  • b2060880335shared an impression4 years ago
    👍Worth reading

    Great meaningful reading.

  • Claudia Rondón Bohórquezshared an impression9 years ago
    👍Worth reading
    💡Learnt A Lot
    🚀Unputdownable

    I must confess that I got to this book after I watched the BBC's series, so I was already familiar with the stories the narrator told. This left space to appreciate the style of narration. It is a narration that tries to accompany the reader throughout the reading experience; she helps you as much as she helped women give birth. As a woman who shuns from her life the possibility of giving birth, it is sometimes shocking, since some parts of the narration are given in full detail; this I liked. Life and birth are given in detail, without the idea of revulsion, just as a person in medicine would tell it. Also, it places criticism around the ways in which women's problems have been obviated by statesmen and male physician, and in the household chore-division.
    It was nice to learn that kangaroo children program originated in Colombia, my home country. It has shown me the resilience of doctors and mothers who refuse to let their premature children die and suffer in their earliest months. My niece is a kangaroo child and she survived mainly because of this. Without this program we would be sorry and in shadows. This book allowed me to make this connection and for it I am truly thankful

Quotes

  • M0has quoted2 days ago
    In later years oxytocics would be routinely given after the birth of the baby, causing immediate and vigorous uterine contraction, so that the placenta is expelled within three to five minutes of the baby’s birth. Medical science marches on! But in the 1950s, we had no such aids to delivery.
  • M0has quoted2 days ago
    All GPs had been trained by a midwife. But these facts seemed to be barely known
  • M0has quoted2 days ago
    he placenta must be delivered, and it must be delivered whole, with no pieces torn off and left behind in the uterus. If there are, the woman will be in serious trouble: infection, ongoing bleeding, perhaps even a massive haemorrhage, which can be fatal. It is perhaps the trickiest part of any delivery, to get the placenta out whole and intact.

On the bookshelves

fb2epub
Drag & drop your files (not more than 5 at once)