Customer Reviews
midwifery in the raw - By: Ms. A. McGregor, 06 Feb 2007 
This is a excellent book in many ways. It tells of a young woman's training in midwifery, undertaken under the supervision of an order of nuns whose mission was nursing & midwifery, in the poverty of east end London in the 1950's. If you are a training midwife (as I am) some of the discriptions are truly horrifying - watching a young woman die of eclampsia, stillbirths & diseases that you will never see in Britain today. It also shows how midwifery used to be practised in this country, in a time when midwives were independent & worked alone, when most women gave birth at home (sucessfully). As a social document it is also incredibly valuable - a discription of the devastation that workhouses left in their wake is a valuable reminder of how we used to treat poor people in this country, & how we must not alllow shalllow prejudices about teenage mothers & single parents (so easily scapegoated!) let us treat them as lesser, non-citizens. Also a useful reminder of how "the good old days" are a myth - things are better now in many ways, & there were teenage mums, drugs, prostitution & people trafficking then, too. I heartily recommend this to any one interested in midwifery, social history, & women's studies.
I will never complain about my life being hard ever again! - By: , 30 Dec 2005 
If you enjoyed Calll the Midwife, you will definately enjoy this book, although the content is not midwifery related. There are three parts to the book, each containing stories of people who the author had known through her work.
Her descriptions of the hardship & poverty of early 1900's London, along with personal tragedy & sacrifice will make you weep, & feel thankful to be living in the 21st Century.
- Frank & Peggy, brother & sister, separated from their parents by death & then from each other by the workhouse... courage, hope, joy, & a real tear-jerker ending.
- Joe Collett - this story is a testament to the truly caring & generous spirit of the author - she goes above & beyond the calll of duty in my opinion to befriend an old man - & hears a tale of army life & family courage spanning three wars, with more than a touch of tragedy along the way.
Beautifully written, I could not put it down.
