Call the Midwife: BTS footage of new Christmas Special and Series 14
The upcoming series of Call the Midwife will see the beloved members of Nonnatus House delivering more babies away from mothers’ homes.
This fits in with a real-life change which saw more than 80 per cent of births taking place in hospitals by 1970. The Peel Report of that year called for enough beds for all women to have hospital births.
And with this came more medical interventions such as c-sections, which will be shown in the 14th series of the BBC drama starting next month. Writer Heidi Thomas says: “Birth in Britain had never been safer but women didn’t necessarily feel safer and they certainly don’t feel safer today.
"In the 1960s maternal mortality rates were falling anyway because of the advent of antibiotics and the NHS. And while the NHS is brilliant at emergency births, women having a more routine delivery often feel let down and less safe due to the lack of continuity of midwife care and lack of emotional support.”
She adds: “When I speak to midwives the one thing they say they envy about Call the Midwife is the time they have for their patients.
"They are with them before and during, and then afterwards offering emotional support as well as first-class medical care, which is not something most mothers experience today.
“I remember when my son Dominic was born in the 1990s, my midwife told me my baby would be born on her shift and I remember thinking there was only seven hours.
“She broke my waters to move things along and everything went wrong, and I ended up having forceps and 40 stitches. Obviously I was glad I was in hospital when things went wrong but I it felt like it was done at their convenience not mine.”
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The 62-year-old, married to Stephen McGann who plays Dr Turner in the series, adds: “Recently I sat next to a well-known British actress at an award ceremony in Los Angeles and we ended up crying about our birth experiences. I emphasise that she was British.
“Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge supporter of the NHS. They deliver brilliant care.
“They were with me at the beginning of my life and they will be there at the end, but I do think it is important we keep having these conversations about women’s experiences of giving birth.”
