>This show was shown in Australia on the ABC (the public broadcaster) 
>and has just finished. Jean, the time was the post-war period, 1950s 
>or very early-1960s, and the midwives did home deliveries - 
>including of unexpected triplets in one of the last episodes. You 
>may have noticed in the show, they went off on their bikes, carrying 
>their delivery kits, when called to a delivery. This waws very 
>different form the US situation for the same period.


Is this the UK programme 'Call the Midwife' which was on British TV 
last year, with Miranda Hart?

If so, then it certainly is post-war, and based on true stories.

The author died shortly before the TV programme was broadcast, sadly.

The show caused quite a lot of discussion over here and the consensus 
was that it was pretty accurate.

Home birth, with a midwife, was the norm in the UK until the early 
60s. Midwives and district nurses all rode bicycles round their patch.

Formula feeding from birth, with no bf at all,  was fairly unusual 
until the mid 60s, though supplementation and early switch to formula 
was very common. This comes from talking to women about their 
experiences - it's not in any stats.

It was also common in the 1950s, 60s and 70s for women to be told not 
to breastfeed. If your baby was slightly pre-term, slightly 
post-term,  underweight, overweight, if you yourself were 'tired', 
or thin, or younger, or older, or if your milk looked 'weak', if your 
labour was long,  some know-it-all busybody would stick their nose in 
and order you not to breastfeed.

What we never had here, as far as I can tell from talking to women, 
was routine meds to dry up the milk.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK


-- 
http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk

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