This is a brilliant book by Jennifer Worth who with nuns worked with courage and sureal conditions.  Jennifer and her colleagues delivered babies in the most appalling conditions; the survival instinct of the East End women - it was a complete eye-opener. Oh, that those who pursue financial gains through our litigious culture could read this book - huge families living without the basics of sanitation or even roofs (tarpaulins providing their shelter), Conchita and her 25 pregnancies. I await Jennifer Worth's promised follow-up with great anticipation - my only observation being that she needs to let us know what became of her 'heroes' and 'heroines' - did Conchita live to a ripe old age, did Mary ever escape the clutches of prostitution once released from prison? Come on Jennfer, please tell us. And congratulations on an incredible book - this student midwife looks in awe upon your skills, your courage, your ability to deliver a baby in the most desperate circumstances. It was a griping book I was sorry to finnish.

That sounds like my kind of read!  Have often thought myself that it'd be interesting to get together a collection of birth stories, I don't know any woman who is not happy to divulge all when someone has given birth.  Will put it on my wishlist, thanks for the review.

Sounds great Carole, I have this on my TBR, but have no idea when I'll get round to reading it!

 

I have this on my wishlist, look forward to being able to read it soon!

would forward it to you angela but Alison is going to read it  and it may well be a keeper

Thanks Carole that's a kind thought.  Will keep an eye out, will probably find it in a charity shop if I can't get it on here.  Loads of others to read in the meantime....

Angela x

i could lend it to you if you really want, pm if you want a lend, i am sure i will read it again.it is one of those books

I loved this book too.  I was born and brought up in the area the book is set so could relate to much of the content although I don't remember it being quite that bad.   However, Jennifer is a natural story-teller and I found it hard to put the book down.

Celia

 I thought this was a fabulous, and well-told, memoir.  She has written a second book about her experiences in the area, but not in midwifery, which was the side I was really interested in.

This story opened my eyes to the world of midwifery within London during the 50s, post-war, amongst the damp and the dirt and where family numbers often went into double figures! My favourite part of the book was reading about the midwifery side of things, caring for the women, caring for the babies, and Conchita's story was wonderful. I was not so enthralled by the lengthy story surrounding Mary and her prostitution days, I was more into the catching baby side of things, but the description of the places and the time the story was set are wonderful. I loved that homebirthing was always expected then, and unfortunately, the days when we had to warm pans of water and heat towels by the fire for a homebirth are past =(

I have both of her books (Call the Midwife and Shadows of the Workhouse) but have not wanted to read them yet as they are hardbacks and likely to be keeper's for me.
I prefer to read the books i know i will swap 1st and leave the keepers till last

Jem x

I've got this on my tbr and having been bumping it up the priority list! I'm hoping to get to it later this month. I've promised to lend it to Melissa (mummymelly) once I've read it, but after that I'll more than likely put it on my swaps list for any of you who are interested.

I will buy the rest of her books. Hubby took it on holiday but could not read it as he needs reading glasses and he could not wear them and his sunglasses at the one time. He is so vain not wearing his glasses.

i enjoyed it too, also wanted to know what happened to all the characters, was slightly dissapointed with the ending, also wanted to know about her love that she mentioned a few times!

 I just loved this book and was in floods of tears about the funny old lady. Was a lovely insight into the time and area.

When my Mam returns the book I'll put it on my swap list and someone can snap it up.