Call The Midwife

Children can go along with gore - it could just be ketchup - but the subtleties of adult relationships and ethical dilemmas are different.

Yes, that's what I think and why I was surprised they showed it so early. Not from the point of view of the gore.

Tricky. A lot depends on the ten-year-old. When I was ten, My mother was expecting my long-awaited brother after a ten-year gap. I would have understood a miscarriage, but aborting a baby because you had changed your mind (as it would appear to a child) would have been worrying.

I might even have wondered at what point after the child is born could a mother still decide that it was unwanted? Such power! We all think our parents are omnipotent, but the power of life or death! Scary!

You might perhaps explain a very early abortion in terms of it being absolutely impossible for the parents to raise the child - extreme poverty, mental incapacity - and it being just a formless clump of cells at that point. But then a child would ask about adoption, about childless couples who would love to have a child but were unable to.

The mental and social anguish of an unsupported mother is not an aspect that most children would easily comprehend - or that it is the mother's body and her right to choose. A bit too sophisticated.

Thanks, Elegran. My sometimes unreliable memory was correct, then [Smile] To go back to the OP, though, how would you explain the scene to a ten-year old. Or in fact, how do you explain abortion to a child? I think a child can well understand a miscarriage so do you lie?

Supplies were NOT free between 1962 and 1975.

The free NHS in Britain began July 5th 1948. Did you mean free family planning, JessM?

I do remember contraception being free at one time, but I don't remember how long that lasted. I've lived in NZ and Australia too, so perhaps it was there.

I am wondering now. Did we pay for supplies in the FPA? The free NHS was brought in in the 70s so I only went briefly to FPA in 1971.

I think there were times when it was free and times when it wasn't. The FP clinics were good though - they took their duties seriously. When they had to refuse me my pill because my BP was a bit high, they sent me home with a bag full of condoms!

Never used them though - we both had a laugh at them, then I listened to Beethoven's 6th (the Pastorale) while lying on the sofa and eating strawberries, went to my GP all nicely relaxed and got a prescription off him, as my BP had settled. I guess Beethoven saved me from unwanted pregnancy, 'cos there was no way I could face using condoms after years of never needing them.

PS
The first time I saw a condom, which we called Durex back then, was in a Latin lesson at school. One lad had bought a packet and passed them round the class, sneakily. I nearly gave the game away: I had always imagined them packaged lengthways, so when I saw they come rolled up like a sock, I nearly said something out loud, being so impressed by the logic.

We've been saying that you could get contraception free in the 1960s but I'm sure I remember paying at the FP clinic. Can't remember whether it was for the consultation or what they charmingly called 'supplies'. And of course you could buy condoms as we've said.

Loved Grange Hill^! So said when Dec got blinded going paint balling.

They had reusable ones. The men found them very thick.

We haven't had the new Call the Midwife here yet - looking forward to it!

My Mum went to her Doc for contraceptive advice in the early 1940s. He refused, basically telling her to go forth and multiply, or in his words: "you are a healthy woman with a good hard working husband; you don't need contraception".

So she asked the local prostitute if she could see her for advice on the subject. She was invited to afternoon tea, where Blanche showed her all the various methods. Mum said condoms were her preferred method, but they were too expensive and Dad was too shy to buy them. Blanche suggested a group purchase - if Mum could get a few customers, she'd order them by the gross. Mum did this, and she and a few friends had wholesale price condoms for a while.

However, I suspect that transport problems in mid 1944, leading to the DDay invasion probably disrupted supply. Whatever the reason, i was born in 1945!!

In the 1960s sanity began to prevail, with the pill and non-judgmental family planning clinics, just in time for when I started my naughty years!!

dorsetpennt, Come to think of it I banned Grange Hill too !! I was a lot stricter with my children than I am with my grandchildren but that's OK I think.

Gorki my late MIL didn't want my childfren to watch Grange Hill for the same reason. She thought it would encourage my two to misbehave in school. So any visits to Granny couldn't take place on Grange Hill days. She relented a bit when the cast did their 'just say no' song but used to 'tut-tut' during the programme. Years later one of the cast members [Zammo I think] admitted to puffing away on a joint given to him during recording!!!

Exactly ! I totally agree. My own children now in their thirties still remember me banning them from watching Eastenders when it first started and they were schoolchildren, because of the way the characters treated each other and all the shouting.In contrast,CTM generally shows the main characters genuinely caring about each other and the people they tend and are good role models for the young.To be realistic it needs to show the more bloody bits too.

It was pretty clear from the off that it was not going to be "family watching". But it was very discretely done. Not a single glimpse of the aborted foetus, just Jenny scooping something up under the bed.

I think it is a great series. The books are well worth a read and are about the awfulness of life in the east end in the 50s. They were rehousing people - but there were inevitable delays. FPAs were run by middle class ladies and you had to say you were engaged (even in the early 70s) before you could go there.
I hope lots of young women watched it and realised what life was like when their grandmothers were growing up.
I remember my grandmother saying " if you didnt want to have lots of children in those days my girl, you had to keep your wits about you". However she was a forceful, determined and intelligent woman. (although like most of her generation had very poor education)

I don't watch soaps but I have heard discussions that refer to the "gritty plot" or "controversial story" and these are always shown before the watershed. If I catch the end of Eastenders it always seems to involve people shouting and threatening each other. So why the objection to this episode of CTM?

I trained as a nurse in the 60s and also a midwife.
During my nurse training I can remember tales by students on the gynae ward,(I somehow missed gynae out) about the awful tradgedies on there which were due to women having what were known as a botched abortion at the hands of an unskilled person at home.This was before the passing of the abortion act and some women were so desparate to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy they would go to anyone who said they would help them, qualified or not.Many of these unfortunate ladies, if they survived, would end up infertile after the unreparable damage done to them.I once heard one nurse say''You always know when an abortion case has been brought in because you can smell the blood''

Like many of us, I suspect, I have winced in sympathy with many scenes in CTM. One's body remembers..

But the abortion scene was amazing, and, as has been said, beautifully emphasised with the nail painting references. We should remember how it was.

In the 60s, my friend, whose mother knew a lot more than mine, took her to the doctor and hot her on medication for irregular periods. Of course, I later realised that this was the PILL. She had an interesting love life, and me, I got pregnant. Ah well, that little mistake is now 47 and the light of our lives.

I think young children would get bored by the programme and wander off to do something more interesting and older ones would benefit by knowing what conditions were like such a short time ago. It may make them see their grand parents in a new light.

I've got a feeling the programme is repeated earlier in the day on Sunday when children might be watching but it can always be turned off!! I love the programme as it is set in the area where my grandparents grew up and coming from a more privileged background myself,I had no idea as a child that others were living in such deprivation with such large families.I don't think the programme is suitable for primary school aged children but older ones might find it interesting and thought-provoking.

Well, they do keep giving those warnings at the beginning of nearly every programme these days - "Contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting..."

And how can parents and grandparents possibly know the content of a programme before it is shown? The only answer is to switch off half way through the programme but by then, I think, the damage has been done.

Then having a watershed is lulling some parents and grandparents into a false sense of security, absent. The BBC does have a responsibility so long as it is in place.

Let us also remember parents (and grandparents) have a responsibility about what we choose to let our children – whatever age – watch on television when they are in our houses. So one twelve-year-old who can cope with this material asks questions and learns is fine. Is it the BBcC's responsibility for the one who can't – or that child's family's? What the hell has happened to personal responsibility in our society?