Call The Midwife

I have both read the books and watched the TV series tied to Call The Midwife and highly recommend
it especially for the historical insight to what life was like in London in the 1950s and 1960s. I regularly like to remind people that the British had a hard time after WW2. Both the books and TV series highlight this. The living conditions that people lived in compared to what Americans were experiencing during the boom at this time is quite a contrast. In the area of Poplar was quite poor at the time and people were living in homes that were condemned over 10 years before but unfortunately the councils could not build homes fast enough.

These books also highlight the plumbing conditions in the homes in the UK at the time. In the condemned housing, there was often a communal toilet on each floor and a faucet to get water. So women had to go fetch water and bring it back to their flat. Families often only had one or two rooms despite the amount of people in the family. Launderettes began to become common in the 1960s before that women were still handwashing their clothes but of course they did not have as many clothes as we have today. Plumbing inside the home for kitchens began to come in the 1950s.

The series/books are also great to see how midwifery has developed over the years as well. Particularly that it was mainly provide by these Church of England nuns. The introduction of the practices of today are often taken for granted and the things women experienced at the time is mind blowing. It also shows how important the NHS was as it was introduced in 1948 and the change it made in the lives of people especially the poor. Before the nuns and the NHS, women would give birth either on their own or with 'midwives' with very little training/experience. 

I think that it best to read and watch both because you gain the whole experience. It is well worth the time. I thoroughly enjoyed it and there were times that I gasped in the waiting room at the things included in it.

I think it also makes you understand Great Britain more as well.

If you have seen/read this, let me know what you thought.