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    Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
    Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
    Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
    Audiobook12 hours

    Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times

    Written by Jennifer Worth

    Narrated by Nicola Barber

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    At the age of twenty-two, Jennifer Worth leaves her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in post war London#8217;s East End slums. The colorful characters she meets while delivering babies all over London-from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lives to the woman with twenty-four children who can#8217;t speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city#8217;s seedier side-illuminate a fascinating time in history. Beautifully written and utterly moving, Call the Midwife will touch the hearts of anyone who is, and everyone who has, a mother.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateAug 28, 2012
    ISBN9781611749250
    Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
    Author

    Jennifer Worth

    Jennifer Worth trained as a nurse at the Royal Berk-shire Hospital in Reading, and was later ward sister at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in London, then the Marie Curie Hospital, also in London. Music had always been her passion, and in 1973 she left nursing in order to study music intensively, teaching piano and singing for about twenty-five years. Jennifer died in May 2011 after a short illness, leaving her husband, Philip; two daughters; and three grandchildren. Her books have all been bestsellers in England.

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    Reviews for Call the Midwife

    4/5

    812 ratings79 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 4/5
      Summary: In the 1950s, Jenny Lee arrives at St. Nonnatus House in the East End of London. She was trained as a nurse and was now to apprentice with the nuns of St. Nonnatus to learn midwifery. In post-war London, contraception was rare and unreliable, families were large, wages from jobs at the docks were low, and home births were common, so the midwives of Nonnatus House were a vital part of their community. Call the Midwife is a memoir of Nurse Lee's first few years at Nonnatus, and through her, we get to know the other inhabitants of Nonnatus House, from the sharp tongued Sister Evangelina to the aging and increasingly distracted Sister Monica Joan. We also get glimpses into the lives of the people of the East End, including a woman with twenty four children who spoke no English, a young Irish girl who ran away from a terrible situation at home only to find herself turned out as a prostitute, and an older woman who is still haunted by her time in the workhouse. Through them, Jenny learns the craft of midwifery, and finds kindness and cruelty, heartache and hope, and ultimately, compassion and faith. Review: I had never heard of these books before I began watching the TV series on PBS. And I absolutely fell in love with the show - it reliably makes me cry both happy and sad tears, sometimes at the same time, and it's just warm and caring and full of people who care for and about each other, and I just find it absolutely delightful, even though midwifery is not something I would necessarily care about in and of itself. And while I will do my best to review the book separate of the TV show, the truth is that they're very much intertwined. Many of the stories in this book have been used as episode plots in the show, sometimes with minor or not-so-minor changes, but pretty much all of the bones of this book were stories I was familiar with. This wasn't necessarily a hindrance - the book does present things in a somewhat different light than the show, with more detail and more contextual and historical information than can be presented in the television show. I also knew the main characters quite well before I started the book, so I can't really judge how well the book does in terms of characterization - it feels fabulous but that could just be because I already had them well pictured in my head. (The one exception is Chummy, who's one of my favorite parts of the show but appears in the book much less than I was expecting/hoping.)I listened to the audiobook of this, which was great as well; Worth does her best to transcribe the Cockney dialect (the printed version has an appendix with a dialect and pronunciation guide!), but nothing beats hearing it out loud.Overall, I really enjoyed this book, as I rather suspected I would. The stories don't always connect to one another cleanly, and there are some places where I got the sense that Mrs. Worth was over-editorializing or romanticizing her life (not often, though; she's usually pretty straightforward about the bad parts along with the good.) But it's also interesting from a historical perspective as well as a personal one - the 1950s don't seem like all that long ago, and yet it was a very, very different world in many ways. But the human element of the story has remained remarkably similar, and that's the part I enjoyed most. This book just felt warm and welcoming and full of compassion and grace, which made for a lovely listening experience. 4 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: Fans of the TV show will find much that's familiar (and therefore much that's enjoyable) about the book. Otherwise, it's an interesting piece of medical and social history that's told from a very humanizing perspective.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful look into the lives of midwives. I found myself imagining what it must feel like to walk in their shoes serving those in their community. Looking forward to listening to the other books in this series.
    • 5/5
      The books are a great compliment to the television series.
    • 4/5
      I loved the series and this book. I know have to find book two
    • 5/5
      I read the companion book to this last year and hadn't been able to get this in the US, but now I am in the UK with my terminally-ill mother I took the opportunity to find it. You wouldn't think that the world of the 50s was so different as it is now, but this depiction of the 50s, of bombed-out London, health care where antibiotics were the new miracle drug and children played safely in the streets because there were no cars is truly another world. This, though, is also the story of a young nurse living in and operating from an inner city convent of nuns dedicated to midwifery, good cooking, the odd glass of wine and full of the most eccentric characters. Its a wonderful book, history, memoir and a full of cockney humour.
    • 4/5
      I’m a big fan of Call the Midwife on PBS and this book is the memoir on which it is based. Although most of the stories in it were familiar because of the television shows, they did offer insight that a television show can’t. My favorite series character is Chummy and her background is fleshed out quite nicely in the book. Ms.Worth’s writing is straightforward. She does not sugarcoat the difficult lives many of her patients lived in post-war London. She spends a great deal of time with two of the most poignant stories from the series: Mary the single, pregnant girl from Ireland who is forced to give up her child; and Conchita, the mother of 25 children, including a premature baby. Call the Midwife is a quick and satisfying read and should be of interest to fans of the series.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant. Jennifer Worth tells a great story. She writes very well, informative and entertaining. This is her autobiography of some of her nursing days, I look forward to trying her fiction of the same era.
    • 5/5
      loved it. I watched to show on PBS and very glad to find the audible book.
    • 4/5
      I would give the writing style of this book a 3 star, but I found the stories very interesting and unusual. There is a lot of "hard times" in it, but much goodness and joy as well. There is heroism as well as evil in what appears to have been everyday life among the poor. It struck me that this was at a time when I was about 4 years old. It was hard to see this as the same period of time that I was living in. I learned a lot from this book.
    • 5/5
      Wow just wow, and excellent book! Well written, captivating, I laughed and I cried. Highly recommend
    • 5/5
      This woman has seen a lot. Being a midwife really gets you in amongst the real lives of people, and it shows with this book. The author went from nursing into midwifery training under the care of Nuns, and even though she wasn't religious, lived in the convent while practicing. 1950s East End London was a poor and rough place but her nurses uniform afforded her respect. Just how poor and crowded the area was shocked me. Most families lived packed into small 2 room places, and it was the norm to have at least 5 or 6 kids. Most families kept clean and tidy homes, but descriptions of some who lived in squalor- piles of human waste indoors, flies, half naked dirty children- astounded me. People couldn't afford to get a doctor for the delivery of a baby, and as mothers grandmothers, aunts and any older woman about could tell you, you didn't really need one. Such was the level of knowledge amongst them all, things were managed at home with the local midwife and GP if needed. Chapter by chapter Worth reveals the personal stories of the people she encountered in the course of her early career. So often, the stories are sad. Families were destroyed upon the early death of the husband/father, and few options were left for a mother trying to support a large brood of kids, and little or no income and no social security. Alcoholism, prostitution, condemned housing tenements. And then stories of loving and supportive families, sober hard-working, proud men who loved and helped their wives in the home- which was so unheard of then. The mixed bag that is humanity. A fantastic social history.
    • 4/5
      This thoughtfully written memoir forms the basis for the fictionalized television series of the same name. Worth's experiences in one of London's poorest neighborhoods in the 1950s is full of laughter and tears as she describes her experiences.
    • 4/5
      Worth recounts her time as a newly fledged midwife working with the midwifes and sisters at Nonnatus House in London. Their service area was near the docks and poor living areas where overcrowded housing abounded. Worth's recollections and musings are wonderfully vivid and heartwarming and I highly enjoyed this book - even if it did take me into some sad and almost gruesome situations at times. I highly recommend it - if you enjoy the show the book is much the same - fans of history and human centered storytelling will enjoy this one.
    • 3/5
      This is categorized as non-fiction/memoir. But I would have enjoyed it more if it had been told in a more true-to-memory fashion, without all the manufactured dialog that makes it feel so "ready for TV serialization".I also would have liked just a little more backstory on the writer, the doomed relationship she occasionally alludes to, and how she got into nursing and midwifery. Not a ton of backstory, just a little. For the most part I appreciate her letting her own character recede into the background so often.There is honesty in her multi-chapter remembrances of befriending an innocent Irish girl led into prostitution - she admits her interest bordered on voyeuristic. And the stealing of said girl's child to be put up for adoption in a good Catholic home was dealt with in a refreshingly open-eyed manner. The writer is righteously and rightfully indignant, but accepts that the real evil is that there is no other course available.Somehow the story of the non-English-speaking Spanish lady who prematurely gave birth to her 25th child (yeah, right...) made me feel ticked off. A one-pound baby and she raises it to at least six pounds (we only assume he lived a full life - her story ends when he is six pounds) simply by swaddling him close to her and feeding him colostrum and milk drop by drop. Hell, why do we have NICU's, after all? What a waste, when it's so easy! I don't know why this story out of all the stories in the book annoyed me the most, but I just wanted to smack that woman when she refused to let go of her one-pound baby. I knew he would survive, given the type of book this is and how the story was set up, but I wished the poor infant ill, through no fault of his own.
    • 5/5
      Charming memoir set in a pivotal time in history -for London, for National Health, for post-WWII. Light and lively.
    • 5/5
      This book, CALL THE MIDWIFE, is every bit as good as the award-winning TV series which has been running on BBC for ten years now. I've been watching it almost from the beginning, and it never fails to deliver equal measures of tears and laughter. Well, ditto Jennifer Worth's book. She is a wonderful writer, and I hope to find time to read the other two books in her trilogy, documenting the adventures and accomplishments of the nuns and midwives of Nonnatus House in the slums of post-war London. Very highly recommended. - Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable book of real life stories of a midwife in the 1950's in London. While many of her stories were often sad there were several of hope and love. I can't even imagine how these women coped in such dire circumstances and surroundings. Definite heroes of their time.
    • 4/5
      A memoir about midwifery in 1950 slums of London. While describing distressing living conditions the book has a live affirming tone to it. It's easy to see why it was made into a TV series.
    • 4/5
      Great read. It's clearly in the realm of "creative non-fiction" as she narrates scenes where she was not present. If I were a sociology teacher, I would definitely include it in a course as she has observations about the locales, people, classes, systems and forces that she worked with. One of the pluses is that in the 50s, and she points this out, she worked with people who were shaped by the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. Really interesting!
    • 4/5
      Not sure what to say. I liked it. There were several interesting and fun characters- and I'm sure I learned much more than I ever thought I would.
      However, my first thought was... I can't read every detail about every birth person has witnessed. After the first chapter, it moved into other stories, some of which were excellent. My only objection was - it felt a little choppy. (Because it really was a book with many different scenarios, it felt like a book of short stories, and I'm not a fan.)
    • 4/5
      This is a memoir of a nurse midwife during the 1950's living and working in the heart of London Docklands. Being a nurse myself, I had many laughs about the stories shared in this book.

      "Why did I ever start this? I must have been mad! There were dozens of other things I could have been - a model, air hostess, or a ship's stewardess. The ideas run through my head, all glamorous, highly paid jobs."

      Although deeply rewarding, the life of a midwife can be filled with both joy and sorrow. It is a true calling requiring dedication and compassion.

    • 4/5
      This is a compelling, thought provoking look at midwifery in the slums of post war London. Reading this affirms my feeling that it's a miracle so many healthy babies have been born over the centuries to mothers who made it through the birth just fine. Some of the book was too graphic for me, but it's easy enough to skip a few pages. Highly recommend.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating stories of birth and women. Only I really disliked the extremely detailed and graphic description of a teenage girl's introduction to a brothel. It was disturbing enough without needing all the details.
    • 4/5
      Digital audiobook narrated by Nicola Barber. Originally titled: The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times. This was renamed to coincide with the popular television series. And in case you haven’t seen the TV show, the subtitle is really all the synopsis you need.Worth was a 22-year-old young woman, with no particular religious affiliation, who found herself assigned to Nonnatus House, a convent, for her training as a midwife. She got an excellent education, more practical experience than she bargained for, and an appreciation for the spiritual beliefs that helped the sisters cope with the realities of their work. Worth has been criticized for how brutally honest and graphic some of these recollections are. But I was not particularly bothered by this. She was working in an impoverished area of London, in the 1950s. Times were hard, many buildings were still in dilapidated condition following damage sustained in WW2, prostitution was rampant, and tenements were crowded. I felt that the gritty reality of her experiences added to the memoir.She also makes time to show the tenderness of a loving marriage, parents who are devoted to raising their children despite their limited resources, and friends / colleagues on whom one can rely. I think she did a good job of honestly recollecting her experiences during this time frame.The printed book includes a Appendix that addresses the difficulties of “writing the Cockney dialect” and a glossary of terms. These are not included in the audio version.Nicola Barber does a fine job narrating the audiobook. I’m sure that my devotion to the TV series helped, because I clearly pictured the scenes/actresses from the show.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this memoir as I do the PBS series. I appreciated the unflinching look at life among the poor of the East End and the attention given to details about women's roles in England of the 1950s and 1960s.
    • 5/5
      I loved this memoir into the life of midwife Jenny Lee. She writes with poignant and in depth detail of her cases and her personal life. This book will move you, have you laughing, have you astonished, and at times near tears. I can't wait to read the next book.
    • 5/5
      Each chapter is a story of the difficulties of daily life for women; illegal abortion, premature birth, diseases that we never think about today. The stories are about very real people and their resilience in very difficult situations. I enjoyed the PBS series, I loved the memoir.
    • 4/5
      Medical care in the slums East London set in the 50's hardly seemed appealing but I am trying to be more open minded in my choice of reading material. I have never watched the series either. The beginning of the book had me telling myself "I told you so". My attention kept wandering but I was not ready to abandon the book yet. I am really glad I stuck it out because the stories told by Jenny were interesting. Some of them were funny and charming while others were heartbreaking. This is not a gentle book. Some of the stories are a bit graphic but I would say they appear realistic.
    • 4/5
      Absolutely charming....and if you are a grammarian, do not miss the Appendix which gives a brief education on the Cockney language - the language of Shakespeare and King Henry VIII!
    • 4/5
      An interesting look back to a not-so-distant time when obstetrics and maternity medicine was still in its infancy.