Product Description

Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which many women gave birth just half a century ago were horrifying, not only because of their grimly impoverished surroundings, but also because of what they were expected to endure. But while Jennifer witnessed brutality and tragedy, she also met with amazing kindness and understanding, tempered by a great deal of Cockney humour. She also earned the confidences of some whose lives were truly stranger, more poignant and more terrifying than could ever be recounted in fiction. Attached to an order of nuns who had been working in the slums since the 1870s, Jennifer tells the story not only of the women she treated, but also of the community of nuns (including one who was accused of stealing jewels from Hatton Garden) and the camaraderie of the midwives with whom she trained. Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving, Jennifer's stories bring to life the colourful world of the East End in the 1950s.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #640 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 376 pages

Sunday Express 7th July 2002 - Fiona McDonald Smith
Jennifer Worth can rival James Herriot with her descriptions of childbirth in the Poplar tenements.

Review
"Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving" (YORKSHIRE EVENING POST )

"Worth's portrait is subtle, skilfully describing a sense of community that no longer exists" (FT MAGAZINE )

"an amazing if at times gut-wrenching read... a detailed trip into history which may raise a few tears and many eyebrows" (WARWICKSHIRE TELEGRAPH )

"Misery memoir meets EastEnders with a bang!" (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )

Eastern Daily Press 14th October 2002 - Rachel Banham
This Brillient book was written because there is nothing by midwives about midwifery in the whole of European Literature

Customer Reviews

Familiar Territory
Like Jennifer Worth, I was a midwife in the Fifties. Her narrative awoke many memories for me, many I'd forgotten, some I'd tried to forget. An only child, protected from the 'nastiness' of real life, midwifery training at first shocked me and then drew me into a career full of love and life: I miss it still. My 'District' was suburban London and later on a West End hospital, but poverty was there,too, alongside a richness of spirit. I used to be embarrassed by my emotional response at every birth I attended:'Call the Midwife' made me shed tears again as my memories chimed with her experiences. The 'Kangaroo Care' of Conchita's baby specially drew me as I had a spell caring for premature babies and always felt that incubator care was too impersonal; thankfully this has changed now to allow mothers much more hands-on involvement with their tiny babies.
Incidentally, I trained medical students: are they really no longer trained in this way?
May I add my plea to Jennifer Worth to complete her trilogy; the only improvement on her first book would be two more of the same.

Call the Midwife - a salutory experience
'Call the Midwife' is a most extraordinary book and should be required reading of all students of midwifery, nursing, sociology and modern history. It tells of the experiences of a young trainee midwife in the East End of London in the 1950's and is a graphic portrayal of the quite appalling conditions that the East Enders endured. Some of the stories told by the author are so distressing that I have lost sleep over them and I find myself longing to know what ultimately became of Mary, the young Irish girl imprisoned for stealing a baby (her own baby having been removed from her when the nuns caring for her were unable to place her in a job that would allow her to keep her child). What happened to Mary's daughter? By my reckoning she should be a woman in her 50's now - was she ever told that she was adopted, that she had been removed from her adoring mother without Mary's consent? I have had nightmares too about the two little boys sheltering behind a chair to escape the violence of their mother's partner; what became of them, did they go on to inflict the same brutality on their own children? As a graduate of Modern History (and student midwife), I thought I knew a good deal about recent British history. How very wrong I was. This book gave me much pause for thought: the heroism of the nursing order of nuns that Jennifer Worth worked with; the courage of Jennifer Worth and her colleagues in delivering babies in the most appalling conditions; the survival instinct of the East End women - it was a complete eye-opener. Oh, that those who pursue financial gains through our litigious culture could read this book - huge families living without the basics of sanitation or even roofs (tarpaulins providing their shelter), Conchita and her 25 pregnancies. I await Jennifer Worth's promised follow-up with great anticipation - my only observation being that she needs to let us know what became of her 'heroes' and 'heroines' - did Conchita live to a ripe old age, did Mary ever escape the clutches of prostitution once released from prison? Come on Jennfer, please tell us. And congratulations on an incredible book - this student midwife looks in awe upon your skills, your courage, your ability to deliver a baby in the most desperate circumstances. And I salute the women of the 1950s East End.

A pick up/put down kinda book - only it NEVER gets put down!
This book has similarities to Baby Catcher, in that it is another biography, however it is set in London in the 1950's and highlights some of the realities of a darker side of midwifery. It brings the history and origins of British midwifery to life and describes conditions and early pionears of midwifery in some of the most poverty stricken areas of London. Ive not finished reading it yet but its one of those I just cant put down!! Id definately recommend it to anyone who has a vague interest in midwifery as its facinationg the think how far we have come in just 60 years (my mum was born in the 40's, which now Ive read this is a scarey thought!).