Like most curators, I’m always on the look-out for interesting stories and things that capture public interest. So it won’t be much of a surprise to find I’ve been watching and reading Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth. Call the Midwife chronicles the work of the author as a midwife in the East End of London in the 1950s.
As you would expect we have a large collection of objects relating to midwifery and obstetrics. The piece of kit that caught my eye during the TV serialisation of the book is the foetal stethoscope.
Used to listen for a foetal heartbeat, this piece of equipment is a far cry from the electronic heartbeat monitoring that is sometimes used in hospitals today. Thank you to Charlotte Walker for pointing out that the Pinard stethoscope is still in use today.
But how could midwives prepare themselves for the different birthing scenarios might arise? Obstetrical phantoms were one way and hands-on experience the other.
When presented with a difficult birth, midwives dealing with home births in the 1950s often called in for the local doctor, but everything was done either through sound, touch or sight.
With the introduction of the ultrasound scanner, foetuses could be seen before birth. Originally ultrasound had been used for detecting submarines and checking for metal fatigue, before being adapted for medical use by Professor Ian Donald in the late 1950s.
For women today, there is a wide variety of choices when it comes to childbirth – home delivery, water births or hospitals. There is also a choice for women as to what equipment is used. What would you collect now, to show the experience of childbirth today in 50 years time?
5 comments on “Call The Midwife”
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Selina,
Love this! ON a similar theme, I’ve written an account of how the TV production pursued clinical accuracy in Call the Midwife over at Imperial’s Science Communication blog :-
https://refractiveindex.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/honest-labour-accuracy-and-engagement-in-the-bbcs-call-the-midwife/
Hi Stephen, Thanks for the comment and the link – the programme really has captured everyone’s attention!
From recent experience:
1. Baby feeding charts and growth curves
2. A variety of posters on breast feeding
3. The paperwork for labour, midwives were scribbling furiously for the entire course of my wife’s labour.
4. A cardiotocograph (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiotocography) with a blue belt and a pink belt to hold the sensors on, and a paper chart.
Midwives today still use the Pinard stethoscope! Not all births are in hospital, and even when they are not all women want electronic foetal monitoring, Your blog makes it sound like ancient history 🙁
Hi Charlotte, Thank you for pointing out my omission about the stethoscope. I think that you raise an important point about choice in birthing places and the equipment used.