Having generally enjoyed the BBC series earlier this year, I was looking forward to reading the book on which the programmes were based. The programme on occasion dealt with the grittier aspects of life and at times I found it crude so I was expecting some of the same in the book. However, having finished it I don't know if I would heartily recommend it, though it was a fascinating and on many occasions moving read.
The book is basically the memoirs of Midwife, Jenny Lee who worked in the East End of London in the 1950's. Although at the outset of her becoming a midwife she would have described herself as "... an irreligious girl... an agnostic in whom large ares of doubt and uncertainty resided" she ends up unbeknown to her of accepting a post with a group of Anglican nursing Nuns and consequently living in a convent, Nonnatus House.
Throughout the course of the book we meet a wide range of individuals bound by one common thread, the fact that they are about to give birth. There are old ladies and young ladies, ladies expecting their first child and their 24th, ladies in good standing and prostitutes.
On a negative note there is rather a lot of bad language and vulgarity in the book, although this is undoubtedly how the people of London's East End in the 1950's spoke and acted. Also there is one section where Mary a prostitute, whom Nurse Lee befriends gives an overly and unnecessarily explicit description of her previous life in a brothel. Finally, it has to be remembered that this is a book about midwifery. Therefore there are incredibly detailed descriptions of birth and so it is by no means a book for those who are queasy over such matters!
However, this is a book I feel that can teach us so much. The events recorded in he book happened less than 60 years ago, yet in so many ways some of the methods seem prehistoric! We can see the leaps and bounds that medicine has come along in recent years which now makes childbirth a much less risky business. Also related to health care we see an era in which the NHS was just developing and we see people truly grateful for a quality free health service. Perhaps we today have come to expect too much and should be more appreciative for what we have in this regard, which in the vast majority of cases is truly excellent.
While reading the book I was also filled with sadness. Sadness, at how far society has slipped from its biblical heritage in the last number of years. Throughout the book we see a culture where marriage was generally accepted as the norm, pregnancy out of wedlock was severely frowned upon and families stuck together.
So although I would recommend this book with caution and I definitely wont be giving it to my wee sister to read, it is a fascinating insight into life in the East End of London in the 1950's and can teach us many lessons for today.
Throughout the course of the book we meet a wide range of individuals bound by one common thread, the fact that they are about to give birth. There are old ladies and young ladies, ladies expecting their first child and their 24th, ladies in good standing and prostitutes.
On a negative note there is rather a lot of bad language and vulgarity in the book, although this is undoubtedly how the people of London's East End in the 1950's spoke and acted. Also there is one section where Mary a prostitute, whom Nurse Lee befriends gives an overly and unnecessarily explicit description of her previous life in a brothel. Finally, it has to be remembered that this is a book about midwifery. Therefore there are incredibly detailed descriptions of birth and so it is by no means a book for those who are queasy over such matters!
However, this is a book I feel that can teach us so much. The events recorded in he book happened less than 60 years ago, yet in so many ways some of the methods seem prehistoric! We can see the leaps and bounds that medicine has come along in recent years which now makes childbirth a much less risky business. Also related to health care we see an era in which the NHS was just developing and we see people truly grateful for a quality free health service. Perhaps we today have come to expect too much and should be more appreciative for what we have in this regard, which in the vast majority of cases is truly excellent.
While reading the book I was also filled with sadness. Sadness, at how far society has slipped from its biblical heritage in the last number of years. Throughout the book we see a culture where marriage was generally accepted as the norm, pregnancy out of wedlock was severely frowned upon and families stuck together.
However, the verse "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun"(Ecclesiastes 1:9 ESV) also came to mind time and time again. Throughout the memoirs we see prostitution, child labour, alcoholism and abuse, all of which are problems in our world today. It reminds us that no matter how far technological and medical advances come this world will be a sinful, messed up place until the day when Christ returns. On a positive note the book concludes with Jenny stating that she has begun to have faith in God and has started reading the Gospels.
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