I remember plunging into a bath of cold water - not once but many times - in the middle of the night, in the middle of winter. Reissued in 2007 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, it became a bestseller, as did the subsequent volumes Shadows of the Workhouse (2005; reissued 2008) and Farewell to the East End (2009). For the most part it depicts the day-to-day lives of the midwives and those in their local neighbourhood of Poplar, with certain historical events of the era having a direct or indirect effect on the characters and storylines.

Her subsequent nursing jobs were at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospital in Bloomsbury, and finally at the Marie Curie hospital in Hampstead.Or perhaps she understood – as I do now – that it was what was unsaid, rather than any words that passed between us, that mattered the most.

Worth asks, “What woman worthy of the name Mother would stand on a high moral platform about selling her body if her child were dying of hunger and exposure? At the time of her work, home-births were most common, as were very large families due to the lack of, and knowledge about, birth control. In particular, commentators have noted the attention given to female social issues in the drama's post-war, pre-pill setting. I was a district midwife in London in the 1950s and I certainly never saw a survivor of that method," she wrote, going on to describe "the horrors of backstreet abortions" as "beyond imagining and defy[ing] description". translating into three million viewers – 50 per cent above PBS's primetime average for the 2011–12 series.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the cases in the book were turned into episodes of the show. The NHS was instituted after the end of WWII as part of the UK's welfare state in an effort to ensure that all Britains had access to medical care. I highly recommend this series and look forward to viewing season 3 as well as reading Shadows of the Workhouse. She’s kind of self-destructive, witty and she’s climbing the walls with frustration and boredom, but she just wants to have fun. and might not be something to listen to in front of very young children, unless you want to be answering questions.

Because of my hearing loss, I sometimes have problems hearing and understanding female voices, but I was able to completely understand Barber's narration. All in all, this book revisits and exemplifies the lives of London’s East End in the face of adversity, and the poor working and living conditions which midwives experienced in London’s East End but the aid workers soldiered on for the betterment of the society. BBC Worldwide also sold the programme to SVT (Sweden); NRK (Norway); RÚV (Iceland); Yle (Finland); AXN White (Spain; Portugal); ERT (Greece); [23] [24] ABC in Australia and TVNZ 1 in New Zealand, where its debut recorded a 35% share of the audience – 20% above average. 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. There is also plenty of romanticizing the past, talking about how no one had to lock their doors and when girls got pregnant, their men rose to the challenge and married them.Until recently, when genetic blood tests became possible, how could any man know that his wife was carrying his child? Bibliophiles who enjoyed The Midwife Trilogy penned by Jennifer Worth also greatly enjoyed the following suchlike books. Jessica Raine was terribly anxious that we should be happy with her performance and I think she’s got it just right.