1964

Parents would unlock the front door and it stayed that way until bedtime - I've never done that, as I'm on a fairly main road I think that anyone could just walk in.
When we all went out mum would put the key in the coal-house which was built-in at the back. I'm surprised we were never burgled but it didn't seem so commonplace then. We didn't have so much to steal in those days.

my second was born at home in 1973 (he was my daughter's birthday present). he was rather impatient and arrived an hour after my waters broke! i wanted a home birth but my doctor booked me in for a "unit delivery" - my son must have known i didn't want to go to hospital as my husband was doing up the midwife's uniform as she was busy delivering my son.
i was in and out for the first born (my daughter) in 1970 - didn't enjoy the experience even though my labour was only four hours! i hate hospitals!!
don't watch call the midwife as it doesn't appeal but i know they do sterling service .... my midwife was lovely but missed out on delivering my son because he was so impatient and it was her night off!

Lol!!! I still live in house which belonged Gran/Mum still got the outside toilet but it is joined to house with porch which is used as utility room. Dad put bathroom in and the bath is older than me (60).

I had my DS on New Year's Eve 1981, I was induced so had a couple of days waiting for him to put in an appearance and then 10 days from the birth on the maternity ward. Very educational, as they gave you lessons on bathing, dressing and feeding baby. A bit of a rest too, as the babies were moved to the nursery for the night and you were woken up to go and feed them.

I was lucky to have my SIL in the next bed as her DS was very premature and born on the same day as mine. I remember feeling a little embarrassed as I had my baby with me and hers was in the special care unit. (he was fine after a few weeks and is now a strapping young man with his own child). We shared visitors as we were all one big family.

My DD was born in 1984 and they only kept you in for 7 days for the second and subsequent baby.

Nanny123 I also remarked on the steel rubbish bins. I remember how noisy the bin men were on collection day! But they really earned their money carrying those heavy bins about.

Grandtante Yes, the workhouses had closed before the 1960s, but many became hospitals. Our local hospital had previously been a workhouse and asylum, and just the mention of its name was enough to strike fear into the hearts of many elderly people even in the '60s, my grandfather included.

Franbern I agree there was a lot of crime in the East End in the 60s - it didn't get its reputation for nothing! But there was also great community spirit and care among neighbours, they watched out for each other. People left their doors and windows open while they popped across the street to a neighbour or corner shop. Bikes or babies in prams could be left outside shops, and I was never afraid to be out on my own at night. But London is very different now, which is why we moved away, but I still miss it and I'll always be a Londoner.

I had all my babies in hospital. One of my daughters has had two caesareans - the first an emergency. Another has had one in a birthing pool, one in a friend's bath when they were house-sitting and the third in her own home. Midwives present at all. I wish I had tried but only the middle daughter was born without any medical intervention.

Call the Midwife is the one programme that I actually stop what I'm doing and watch. So many things in the stories are familiar to me. I was 14 in 1964 and well remember my school friends retrieving the door key through the letter box (or under the doormat or a stone) to get in after school. I wasn't allowed my own door key till I started work at 16!

There were three midwives who cycled around our neighbourhood, and one who had a little Morris car. It was painted canary yellow and very recognisable, so when it was parked outside a house the local children gathered outside to ask the midwife was it a boy or a girl. The news would be around the district faster than lightning!

Most of the women in our street had their babies at home, even though there was a small 'mothers hospital' at the end of the road. I remember going into our local corner shop and finding a neighbour there with her new baby daughter, chatting to several other ladies. The baby was barely 2 hours old! She had run out of milk so had popped across to the shop, as you do....!

I was married in 1964, and we lived in East London. Each time I saw someone in this programme just leave their bikes leaving against a wall I wanted to shout at them. Bikes were so often stolen then, unless they were chained and usually have something like the saddle removed.
My hubbie, a couple of years earlier, had actually watched someone take his bike. However, he saw this through the window of a basement flat and by the time he got out and up the outside steps it was gone.
parents Council flat in East London was twice broken into and burgled whilst they were out at work. No way, would anyone at that time be leaving a front door key so easily accessible, unless there really was nothing at all worth stealing - although even then, places were often trashed and worse.
This programme is so much sugar and treacle, my first baby was born in 1969, in a Walthamstow maternity unit. All first time mums had to stay in for ten days!!! Had no Senior Doctor on duty (anything 'serious' - baby or mum - had to wait for someone to come from local hospital. Just two old, not too clean baths for all post natal patients, no showers, inefficient heating - it was finally closed the following year. I had my second baby at home in same area in 1970, even though we only had an outside toilet. Midwives were brilliant.
There is always this sort of myth that crime was virtually non-existent back then - total myth and figures will show that.

I’m not sure what last night’s episode was trying to tell us. They take an old lady from her home because they didn’t like the way she lived, put her in a home, and she promptly died - alone and not being given attention - not a good reason for being moved!

tuppence I was a district nurse in Nechelles and up the Rock in the mid 80s.

I love that I am young for gransnet. At 50s I havnt felt young for a long while

I used to return from school and get the key - a big mortice one - from the high wall top in the outside loo.

Frequently my mother would have forgotten to put it there. I would go into the shed, a lean-to home made one with no floor except the dirt of the ground and a tin roof. I would feed my guinea pigs and sit on a bale of straw Dad had brought back from the farm for their cages. Often it was dark. I had no torch, that would be a luxury then and something your mother had, not you. I would stay there for up to two hours listening to my guinea pigs munching, cuddling them, smelling the hay and straw and just thinking or day-dreaming. I was happy. I felt safe there. I felt as if no-one could get me there. I always enjoyed being with animals and never felt lonely.

Its a wonderful true to life series brings back happy memories of my midwife training in 1964 it is so well done and very autentic I love it

I had my first in hospital 1977 and was out in 24 hours thank goodness. My second was born in 1980 and I was out in 6 hours... discharged myself as they wanted me to give my son cold milk from a bottle brought straight from a fridge!! they were against bottle feeds and wanted everyone to breast fee! So in consequence didn’t treat us ‘bottle feeders’ very well. So I dressed my son and told them I was discharging myself ... and I did just that. Never took him to a clinic to be weighed or measured or assessed to see he was ‘up to scratch’. In fact he’s 38 now and has just had his third visit to a doctor ... first was aged 10 ( bad throat) second visit was 14 ( glandular fever) and this time its tonsillitis. He’s obviously a throat person. Just in case you think me negligent .... he had all his ‘jabs’ done by a nurse.

When I had my first baby in 1960, my OH was sent away from the maternity hospital and I was left alone to labour until the last half hour or so. The babies were shut away in the nursery and we were only allowed to see them at feeding times. Visiting was one hour a day and we stayed in for 10 days.
My 2nd baby was born at home with the district midwife in attendance. It was great! My 3rd baby was born at home in a rush and a hurry with no one but my OH there. When the midwife eventually turned up, OH was up a ladder mending a fuse---all the electrics had fused when he turned on the little electric fire in the bedroom for some warmth during the delivery! Happy days.

Yes, when I saw Call the Midwife some years ago, I assumed it took place in the late 1940's or even in the 1930's although as a doctor's daughter I am well aware that lots of children where born at home up to the 1970's and that lots of homes had outdoor toilets until the sixties, but some of the other things such as mention of the workhouse seems unlikely in the 1960s

Still happens and not only with old people. I have neighbours who leave it for their schoolchildren because they are so busy making money (which some certainly don't need)

to Annsixty
The portrail last night on Call the Midwife was exactly true with both stories. I was a District Nurse in the inner City of Birmingham in the late 1960s & had the same scenario with an elderly couple that I visited with a colleague, it was portrayed so well & truthful. very good.

Video of my great grandsons birth shows parents and grandparents all in attendance at the birth in 2000
Gosh bijou I don’t think I’d fancy that

I completely agree with you - and thought exactly the same thing last night. Another thing I smiled at was the old tin bin she put the rubbish in. That would have held a weeks worth of rubbish for families 4+ can you imagine having a bin that size for todays rubbish, recycling, and food waste!

When my husband took me into hospital in 1947 to have my first baby, he was told to go off to work and come back at visiting time in the evening. In those days visiting was only allowed on Wednesdays and Sundays for two hours in th afternoon. Because I had complications the first time I had to have my son in hospital in 1949. I went for checkup in the afternoon and was told it would be another two weeks. As soon as I got home pains started so got straight on the bus back ,to the hospital. My husband was working away and hAving no phoned could not contact him. Son born three hours later with no complications but had to stay in hospital for ten days.
Video of my great grandsons birth shows parents and grandparents all in attendance at the birth in 2000.

Had my first daughter in hospital in 1963, Kennedy assassination on the news at the time. I too stayed in for ten days.
Second daughter born at home on New Years Day 1967 after being at a neighbour's New Year's Eve party.
Scottish midwife not impressed at being called out at 5am on Hogmanay! Said to me " I hope you haven't called me out on a wild goose chase" Baby born st 6am so don't think I called her too early.
Remember having to collect loads of newspapers to put on the bed under the sheet!
We lived in the country but Call the Midwife still resonates with me.

I was a qualified RGN, RFN, by 1963, I had my first daughter in 1967 in the local maternity unit. Delivered by my GP.. I Haemorrhaged and had to be quickly transferred to the large Maternity hospital 8 miles away. Because of that I was not allowed to have my second daughter at home in 1970.

oops 1975 not 1075

I had first daughter in 1973 in hospital, not a pleasant experience. You were supposed to stay 10 days but I went home after 5 . I had to fight to have second at home in 1075 and change GP. The midwife who attended was anti home births and had two students with her as nobody had home births in the area. The whole thing stopped, due to go in and be induced next day. They gave me sleeping pills and left. Then daughter arrived and they just made it back in time to catch her! Husband had done medical course as part of work and seen the film so said no worries, he would deliver it .

It was much better and that daughter had her own at home, grandson, two years ago, birthing pool. 3 midwives and photos for us all Actually I could have done without some of the photos. although baby ones are lovely.

I met my husband to be in 1964 and was married in 1965 moved to Malaysia and had my first baby in 1967